All Black
by Evilsheeplordthatsaysmoo
Summary: Shut up. shut up! I am NOT an orphan. I am NOT alone. And I DO have a family! They may not like yours but they love me and I them. Now Feel our wrath. Art of Summoning!"
1. Chapter 1

AN: Moo.

Hello my lovers, my haters, my friends, my enemies, my sisters, my brothers. I would like to welcome you all to a new story: _All Black_.

You, if you are a fan of my other works, have been probably wondering where I have been. Well I have been in college as a freshmen and I have been writing (when I can or when I am inspired). For those waiting for _Ten Thousand Fists_ you will _not_ be disappointed in you wait. Trust me.

This story on the other hand was something that, almost literally, crept on me (much to my older 'children'/stories ire). I based it off of another story _The Most Heinous Crime_ by an author name Andrew Joshua Talon. In order to get a better feel for the characters that I will be featuring in this story I would suggest that you check out his fine piece of work that he has created. Also if are wondering, yes I did get permission from Mr. Talon, but the characters that you do not see in his fic are mine and mine alone.

I will not reveal what the summons that are featured in this fic, but I warn you that they may cause people fright. Anyway, the fic takes place after the Wave mission and picks up after team seven gets back.

I will have further notes at the end of this chapter so please enjoy this piece of literature.

Disclaimer: Some of summons featured in this fic are not mine and belong to Mr. Talon. Please check out his work. Also I do not own Naruto or any characters from other media that may or may not appear in this work of fiction. Thank you.

XxXxX All Black XxXxX

XxXxX First Shade XxXxX

There are many different types of techniques that have been created by Ninja. Illusions, sword styles, hand to hand combat teachings, strange abilities called Ninjutsu, and the art of Sealing are just to name some. These are but a few of the many great techniques that Shinobi equip for combat and espionage. It is because of these five categories, and the ingenuity of the human mind, that countless numbers of derivatives of techniques can be created.

But there is one technique that exists within the category Ninjutsu in the Shinobi world that is near extinction. A technique that can help throw the Shinobi world into complete and utter turmoil like on October tenth in Konohagakure, or rise a nation up onto the mountain of victory and bring forth peace to the land like during Amegakure's civil war. This type of technique is one that is not commonly used, for it is hard to find a Shinobi master that possesses the technique as well as willing to pass it to another individual.

This obscured and unpopular technique is both terribly strong as well as horribly dangerous. One false move could send its castor into the deepest pits of Hell or raise him or her onto the highest tier of honor and recognition. The reason for the danger was that the technique was not a mindless force of nature or an incoherent mass of destructive power, but rather a sentient being. If the castor were to anger the technique it would within its rights to utterly obliterate its castor. The technique demands honor and respect before it can be allowed to be wielded.

That is one of the reasons why this particular technique is so hard to find and possess in the Elemental countries. For one it was a rare technique as well as dangerous. It was seldom that someone would run across the technique's scroll on just some random moment. In fact it was almost impossible to randomly find the technique's scroll, and masters of the technique were far and in between.

But it so happened that one day, one weary and dreary day, a boy with the ability to destroy impossibility and kick reason and physics to the curb did in fact do the impossible. Within his home, his small and overrun apartment, he found a scroll hidden within his floor. The scroll was small and he did not know what it was, but it was these things that changed him. The scroll altered him, morphed him into a being that no one thought could be created. The technique gave him things that he thrived for and sought. That one technique forged a man that saved life and ended strife.

This technique was the **Art of Summoning** and this is Uzumaki Naruto's story.

XxXxX With Naruto XxXxX

"Like Kakashi-sensei knows what he's talking about!" one blond haired youth ranted to himself as he scaled the stairs to his apartment. "I did in fact contribute to the mission! Who was the one that saved him from that watery domey thingy? ME! Who does he think saved Tsunami from those thugs? Me! Who saved Sasuke-teme's ass when he was being turned into a pincushion? Me! Who defeated Haku? ME!" when he said the final point Naruto's voice became very quiet.

The wound of Haku's death was still deep and fresh in Naruto. The boy, or girl depending on how you looked at it, had taught Naruto something that had changed him. Haku had taught Naruto to seek out and protect those that are precious to you, to protect them with your life and not give up until they are safe and sound. When Haku had said that to Naruto in that clearing that one morning, Naruto had taken a deep look into himself.

The statement had forced Naruto to bring his whole goal into question. Naruto's goal was to become Hokage so that people would finally give him the respect that he deserved, but when Haku had told him to find precious people and protect them he rethought his mission. It was as he stood at Haku and Zabuza's grave that he came to answer Haku's request. He would in fact find those that could be considered precious and protect them, and the entirety of the village, as Hokage.

Naruto looked up into the darkening sky as he stood silently on the stairwell of his apartment building. Haku had helped him see what life was meant to be. The boy/girl had helped Naruto solidify his dream and his future. With a sigh he sent a small smile towards the heavens. If it there was anyone who deserved heaven it was that boy/girl and his/her Master. Though the man had tried to kill them, Naruto could feel that deep down Zabuza was actually a good man. When Naruto had yelled at the swordsman he had shed tears for his dead 'tool'. No heartless man would do that.

Just then a splash of a raindrop upon Naruto's nose brought him out of his thoughts. Naruto outstretch his hand and felt several more fat droplets strike his open flesh. Cringing he re-shouldered his pack and began his trek up the stairs anew. By the time Naruto came to his front door it had already begun to downpour. Naruto hated when it rained. Rain meant cold nights, wet floors, and most likely power loss. Another thing that Naruto hated was the fact that individuals still went out of their ways in order for him to feel 'right at home'. They still took time out of their busy schedules so that they could write scrawled insults on his door and the surrounded nearby walls. Words like "monster", "go to hell", and "demon" were written on his door and walls. The least the villagers could do was at least come up with some new insults, but the lack of ingenuity was to be expected from individuals that consciously went to provoke their resident 'Demon'.

"I mean honestly," Naruto ranted to himself as he fished his keys out of his pack, "who in their _right_ mind would go out of their way to _anger_ one of the most _power_ creatures on the planet? And they call _me _stupid…geeze…"

Since Naruto had learned the truth he had come to pity the villagers. At first, when he did not know the reason for their hatred, he had hated them as much as they hated him. He remembered lying in bed at night plotting how he was going to make them pay once he became Hokage. But after he learned that what they hated was the fox he began to pity their horrible nearsightedness. In fact their actions only made them seem that much stupider than not. Soon he found himself giggling at their petty attempts; he just couldn't believe how stupid some of them were.

Naruto quickly shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts. It was not good to mentally stoop down to their level. Sighing at his own stupidity, Naruto quickly unlocked the front door to his apartment and went inside, all the while making a mental note to buy so new paint in order to cover up the ruined door. Once inside his apartment, he quickly locked his door and set his pack upon a nearby hook; it would not do good if he let his guard down only to be ambushed in his own home. As Naruto walked into his living room/dining room, he ran through his irritations in his mind.

Kakashi hadn't believed him when he had told the older man that it was in fact him that had saved Tsunami, saved Sasuke, and defeated Haku. Kakashi only smiled at his enthusiasm and patted his head like some hypocritical parent saying, "Of course you did…" Sakura had a similar reaction albeit a little more violent. Naruto shook his head, while he heated a pot of water, when he remembered Sakura's reaction to his tale. There had been no need for her to attack him like some kind a wild wombat, especially when she brought a broken telephone pole into the equation. Naruto honestly cared for the girl, but the more and more she committed random and uncalled for acts of violence against him the harder it became to seek after her.

Naruto suddenly stretched his arms above his head, sighing as his shoulders popped and cracked. He was happy that he was back home. The mission had taken a lot out of him both physically and emotionally. Now that he was home, and away from his client and team, Naruto was finally able to relax and enjoy solidarity. Unlike popular belief, Naruto was in fact comfortable with being by himself. The mindset had been forged after many years of independence and solitude, so it was of no surprise, to Naruto at least, that the young blond was in fact content with being alone. Some times he even wished for it. Don't get him wrong, he did not mind masses of people but sometimes silence and alone time were some things that Naruto wished for more than others.

Realizing that his ramen was nearing completion, Naruto took the simmering pot from the stove and set it on the small top of his dining room table. After spooning a bowl for himself Naruto prayed over his meal and wasted no time in feasting upon his labor. Though the creation was a pale comparison to that of Ichiraku's Ramen it would have to do. It took no time at all until Naruto had completely emptied the pot of ramen, and it took some mental convincing so that he did not start and devour another packet of the instant meal. If he did he would be running low and it was still some time before his scheduled 'market run'. With that depressing thought Naruto quickly cleaned the dinner's dishes and the dishes that he had left until he returned, and headed towards his bedroom.

His apartment wasn't very big, containing one bedroom, a combination living/dining room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Though the apartment wasn't much, compared to other apartments he had heard about and actual homes, Naruto was happy that he had a roof over his head. In the past he had lived in an orphanage, in a tree, and on the streets. The orphanage had been one of the worst, for the matriarchs had been biased about his existence and had done everything in their power to do nothing. The tree was actually rather homely, well until a 'freak' lightening storm had destroyed the tree. After that, Naruto had taken to living on the street, and it wasn't until six months later that Sarutobi took pity on Naruto's plight and supplied him with the current apartment.

Naruto yawned as he opened his bedroom door. Sleep was the second thing on his mind; dinner taking the first slot. The mission had not been gracious to him when it had come to sleep. Each time he had closed his eyes he had seen Haku's smiling face before it was rendered pale and dead. Each time he had closed his eyes he had felt Sasuke's dead body clutch to his chest. Each time he had closed his eyes he had smelled the freshly dug graves of Haku and Zabuza. Each time he had closed his eyes he had heard the voice of Gatou. It also did not help that Naruto had to share a tent with Sasuke. The Uchiha had a habit of crying in his sleep, most likely due to memories of the massacre, and talking about revenge.

As the tired blond drudged into his bedroom he forgot to side step the weak floor board near the center of the room. The result of his clumsiness was the floorboards giving way under his weight and shattering. Another result of his now trapped leg was that Naruto was plastered face first onto the floor. It took several seconds for Naruto to actually comprehend that he was now, quite literally, eating his floor, and for a time Naruto didn't care. In fact the thought of just sleeping on the floor crossed his mind as he nursed his sore nose, but if he were to sleep on the floor that would mean that the cold night's air would disturb him and thus he would again lack in sleep.

With a disgruntle groan, Naruto pushed himself back to his feet and gazed at the handy work he had wrought. His foot and leg was lodged up to just below his knee and he could feel some of the ridged pieces of the wood digging into his flesh. Ankle wounds were some of the wounds that Naruto hated the most. The reason being was that legs were a few of the appendages that a human uses the most, and the ankles were one part that the legs used the most. So with the constant walking and running, the joints were constantly being force to work and would never be given ample time to heal. So with a hiss of breath into his lungs, Naruto ripped his leg up and out of the impromptu hole he had made.

Naruto had added too much force to his pull and not only was he knocked back onto his rear but it seemed that the slight vacuum that he had created had brought something up from underneath floorboards as well. But Naruto had taken no mind of the forgotten object; instead he was focused solely on his torn leg. His leg seemed to have sustained three deep gouges but even before his eyes the gouges began to heal and seal. This had never happened before, for in the past Naruto would spend days healing. The only conclusion that he could come up with was that now that he was conscious of the fact that the Kyubi was sealed within him that his flesh began to heal even quicker then before. He had always had fast regenerative capabilities, healing a wound in a week when it would normally take a month to do so, but after the Mizuki incident his healing rate had sky rocketed. In morbid curiosity Naruto had taken a kunai and slit a gash across his arm a couple of days after the bout with Mizuki. The gash had been an extensive one, but the moment he actually deviated his mind from the numbing pain he noticed that the six-inch gash was healing steadily. It was as if now that he was conscious of the Kyubi's presence his mind had lifted some kind of roadblock and allowed the beast power to flow into his cells steadily. But this was just a theory with no supporting evidence besides two or three experiments.

As he continued to stare at his leg, the gouges steadily healed until they were no more. That was good; Naruto did not want to have to deal with a bum leg on his three days off that both the Hokage and Kakashi had allowed his team. Even though it appeared to be healed, Naruto still drew his fingers across the new flesh to make sure that he had indeed healed.

After the inspection of his leg, Naruto moved to inspect new hole in his room. It was about a foot wide and maybe two feet deep; it was a hole that could not be covered by a rug, which meant that Naruto was going to need to splurge for more supplies besides just paint. But he could not just leave it as it was now. If he did that more accidents would most likely happen because of the hole. So Naruto began to look around his small bedroom for something that he had put over the hole until tomorrow.

As if scanned the bedroom a small forest green scroll caught his attention. Now while Naruto was known for having his apartment referred to as a pigpen, when it came to scrolls and books he always treated them with the utmost respect and care. So to find a scroll just lying on his floor was actual a peculiar sight. Naruto quickly went to investigate.

What he found on closer inspection was that the scroll was the size of any common storage scroll, about eight inches long and about an inch in thickness. So in regards to scrolls like the Forbidden Scroll and weapon storage scrolls this scroll was relatively small and compact** (1)**. When Naruto finally stirred up the nerve to pick up the new scroll he found that it was indeed quite heavy and a faded forest green color, meaning that the scroll must have been quite old. The edges of the scroll were equally old looking, cracked and split and weathered like old parchment paper that the young blond had seen in a museum during a school field trip. As Naruto gripped the scroll in his hands he held it as if he was holding a new born babe, for he felt that if he made any sudden movements with the scroll that the scroll would fall apart into dust. With the utmost of care Naruto turned the scroll over to examine the entire outside of the scroll.

As he did, Naruto found the labeling for the scroll on a small three inch high white piece of parchment. Though most of the kanji was smudged and faded he was still able to make out one of the symbols. The one kanji that Naruto could make out was the symbol for Summoning. The kanji sparked a recollection in Naruto's mind, a recollection of class with Iruka. In class, one of the few times that Naruto had decided to stay awake or actually attend, Iruka was describing several types of techniques. One of the few that actually caught Naruto's attention during the lecture was the **Art of Summoning**. The technique was meant to summon a creature from the summons plane, a dimension parallel to the Elemental Countries, into battle. Some of the examples that he had given to the class were the toad summons the Sannin Jiraiya used, the slug summons the Sannin Tsunade used, the monkey summons the Sandaime used, and the snake summons the traitor Orochimaru used. He also explained how the summons had tools and techniques all their own; like the Kusanagi long sword that the traitor Orochimaru possessed and the Adamantine Staff that the Sandaime used.

So if Naruto's giddy mind was correct, the scroll that he now held in his hand could in fact been one of those summoning contracts. But the likelihood of that would be slim to none. "Good thing I don't care about likelihood…" Naruto mumbled to himself happily.

With a fluid motion, Naruto gently placed the weathered scroll on the ground and undid the string constraint. The strings purpose was to help keep the scroll rolled up into itself, so once it was untied Naruto had free access to the scrolls inner contents. With the greatest of care Naruto quietly began to unroll the olden scroll, marveling at how he was still able to do so without it breaking. When the scroll was finally unraveled about ten revolutions, Naruto found a strange sight. The scroll was divided into two-inch wide, eight-inch long sections, barred off from other sections by black borders, and at the foremost beginning of the scroll were kanji for the correct seals in order to perform the technique. Now this was the first time that Naruto had seen the inside of a summon scroll, as well as the signs needed to perform the technique, but Naruto knew that there was more to summoning than just the hand seals.

As he recounted Iruka's lecture a second time Naruto remembered that the **Art of Summoning** was a technique all of its own. In order to summon the select creature a blood sacrifice must be given in order to allow the summon beast into the mortal plane. But the blood was also not enough. If Naruto recalled correctly he could remember that Iruka had mentioned that a future summoner must first sign his name in blood on the original summon scroll in order to gain the privilege of summoning. Well that explained the barred off sections in the scroll, but what Naruto found as weird was that all of the sections were empty. Could if be that no one had signed this particular contract and that he was the first?

Without hesitating Naruto pulled a kunai from his side holster. He had been so drowsy that he had neglected to remove his Ninja tools from his person even before he had fallen, or plan to have fallen, asleep. With a quick flick of the blades tip the young blond formed a small incision on his right index finger, the hand he was most prominent in writing with. With the small flow of crimson blood Naruto hastily began to write his name on the cream colored parchment. As he finished his name a childish smile made its way onto the boys face. Working quickly Naruto dabbed a little bit of blood on each of his fingers on his right hand and smashed them just below his name. From then on everyone would know that this signature was the authentic signature of Uzumaki Naruto **(2)**.

Giggle at his own 'cleverness' Naruto stood up and began to prepare himself for the technique. Thoughts of what kind of creature he would conger ran through his mind. Speculations of dragons and mystical birds tickled his nerves. Maybe he would summon a great genie or maybe be would be bringing forth a mighty titan.

A terrible flash of lightening and the sudden roar of thunder broke Naruto's fantasies and sent him reeling to the floor. Luckily he angled himself so that he did not topple onto the old unraveled scroll. When Naruto finally caught his breath he turned to his bedroom window and cursed. Due to his new discovery he had neglected to realize that the winds had picked up and that the rains were battering his apartment building. This only meant that soon his power would fail and he would be plunged into darkness. This was a common occurrence. When a thunderstorm struck the landlord of his apartment would always shut off power to his apartment during storms, probably some tactic to instill fear into the young teen. The opposite was the actual out come. Because of the sudden and somewhat predictable power outages Naruto had in fact come to enjoy the dark and the thunderstorms. He thought of them as his own personal symphony and band; the storms would roar and bellow just for him it seemed, and during those times Naruto would feel that he truly had someone with him all the time. It was like he was with this someone, hidden within a port during the raging storm **(3)**.

The thought of postponing his discovery until morning cross the blonde's mind, but the giddy fantasies only seemed to capture him again when he contemplated leaving his journey half complete. So brushing his retreating thoughts aside, Naruto got back to his feet and prepped himself for the drain on his chakra coils. Taking one last glance at the scroll to ensure that he was in fact using the correct hand seals, Naruto began to channel his chakra. He did not know the precise amount that he needed to collect but he guessed that the same amount as needed to make ten Shadow Doppelgangers would be enough to summon a decent sized…whatever.

With a calming sigh Naruto pricked his thumb on one of his surprisingly long canines and slowly preformed the seals. As he did he gathered what he thought was the needed amount of chakra into his hands. His eyes flashed open with an aura of command and he bellowed forth, "**Art of Summoning!"** As he did he slammed his palm upon his bedroom floor and marveled at the intricate seal that rocketed forth from his palm.

A boom of thunder broke Naruto's concentration on the summoned area, and the sudden darkness, caused by the landlord deciding to cancel the power, obscured Naruto's view of the plumb of smoke that signaled that the summoning ritual was in fact a success. As the darkness consumed the room and apartment Naruto was unable to distinguish the outline of the creature that he had summoned, and the boom from the thunder had caused him to suffer from a brief fit of deafness so he was unable to hear if the creature was making any noise. Seconds ticked by and Naruto was beginning to loose patience with the situation; he had a new 'toy' now and by God he wanted to know what it did.

Finally his hearing began to return to him and what he heard was silence. That worried Naruto, for he knew that he ritual had gone correct, he had seen the plumb of Ninjutsu smoke that had signaled the completion. So it was either that the summon had already unsummoned itself, a skill that the creatures possessed incase they were too injured to fight or when their job was complete, or that the creature was waiting for him to make the first move.

Naruto decided to make the first contact. Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, yet at the same time keeping his senses at the forefront, Naruto spoke into the darkness, "H-hi." Though it was only one word he heard a suddenly noise. It was not loud, maybe a shuffle of fabric across the floor, but it was indeed there.

Picking up his courage again Naruto said, "I know you're there, and I promise that I won't hurt you…"

The shuffling noise made another appearance in the room. Now Naruto was sure that he had in fact summoned something. As if to solidify his resolve a small voice echoed in the darkened room.

"Y-you prom-mise…" it was a small, young voice, and if Naruto was correct it sounded like a young girls.

The voice reminded Naruto of himself when he was young, when he was still not trusting of most people or shy to new people. Smiling at the nostalgic tone Naruto said, "Of course I promise. That's my nindo, and I never go back on my nindo. "

There was a silence between the two individuals and as Naruto's patience began to wear thin he had to remind himself that the creature before him was shy and he was going to need to give it its time. As if to stem his boredom the lights suddenly flashed back on; it seemed that the landlord thought he had 'suffered' enough and had decided to end his 'torment'. What assaulted his senses was a squeal of fright, and the sounds of the creature bumping into the few fixtures of his bedroom. Naruto too was blinded by sudden influx of light. He shielded his eyes from the invading light, whispering a curse at the bad timing of the landlord.

When Naruto's eyes finally became accustomed to the influx of light he found that his summon was missing. He looked to the left and to the right and still did not see his new 'toy'. It was until he heard a soft groan from underneath his dresser that Naruto realized the location of his 'toy'. It seemed that when the lights had gone on the creature had been startled and had rushed towards the only dark area of the room: underneath the four-drawer dresser.

Naruto was about to advance towards the dresser but something inside of him told him to stay where he was, about ten feet away from the dresser. As time ticked on, and as the frightened creature stayed underneath the dresser, Naruto finally decided to take action. Realizing that his bed was now just behind him, Naruto sat himself down on his floor with his back against his bed and faced the dresser. As he sat thoughts of what the creature was invaded his mind again. Since the creature was now hiding under his dresser it was safe to presume that the creature was small in size, or at least able to change its size. That still left the question of what the creature was in Naruto's mind. Could it be a cat? Could it be a lizard? Could it be a dog? Could it be a bird? What could the summon be? Then something caught his eye; movement, from underneath the dresser. It was subtle, a sound of fabric-like shuffling, but there was definite movement. With baited breath, Naruto waited as the summon decided to show itself. First, came a slender appendage, then another, and then finally a head. But as the entirety of the summon made its way into the light, Naruto gasped in fright. For there before Uzumaki Naruto was his summon, a rather large and hairy spider.

The spider was about the size of a large dinner plate, maybe a foot in diameter and when standing about six inches high. Its many eyes, small and pitch black, were trained solely upon Naruto. Its advance was slow, steady, and its long tubular legs made short time over the distance. As Naruto stared into its face he saw the large fangs that made up the beast maw. They glistened in the rooms light, and as the beast advanced Naruto would have sworn that he saw a glob of venom drip from the curved weapons. Its fur, or hairs, or whatever covered its large body, was a deep earthy brown color with spots of black, perfect for blending into the night.

By now the beast was no more than three feet away from the now trembling Naruto. His mind was a flight with horrible scenarios about the monster and himself. He envisioned himself being devoured by the small creature, ingested by its hairy and fanged mouth, and suffering mindless pain all the while. It was nearly driving him mad as the spider advanced even closer still. He had unleashed something horrible onto the world and now he was about to leave it.

Naruto clenched his eyes shut painfully as he waited for his end. He waited and waited but still nothing happened. Maybe the beast had become bored with him and was now off to find a new victim to devour. So Naruto placed his luck on the line and slowly opened his left eye a fraction to see if the beast was still trained solely on him.

To his slight surprise the spider had lost its interest in him and had decided to inspect the scroll on the floor. It stood over the scroll just as Naruto had; and with one of its many front legs it began to trace out Naruto's signature. To Naruto it seemed odd that instead of focusing on the plump and juicy human the spider had went to the inanimate and inedible object. Naruto noticed that the distance between them was wide enough that he could most likely make it to the door and out of the apartment before the beast decided to make him a nighttime snack.

Moving forward slowly, so as to not recapture the spider's attention, Naruto snuck onto his hands and knees. The plan was to creep towards the door on all fours so as to not make much noise. So with the utmost of care Naruto placed one hand in front of the other and began to inch his way slowly to the door. What Naruto did not know was that spiders' main sensory organ were the hairs that covered their bodies, the same hairs that were extremely sensitive to vibrations and movement.

The moment Naruto's hand made contact with the floors surface the spider stopped its investigation. Naruto noticed and began to move even slower in hopes of quieting his movements even more. As Naruto's knee descended upon the wood the spider turned until it was facing Naruto. The poor boy nearly choked on his breath as the spider made its way slowly towards him. His waking nightmare from mere moments ago began to rerun through his mind, and once the spider was just before him he ended his breath.

Seconds ticked by as the large spider gazed up at him, its many beady black eyes being burned into Naruto's memory until the day he died. Finally, when Naruto was about to pass out due to lack of oxygen, the spider raised one of its many forelegs up towards Naruto's face. It reached higher and higher but fell short of actually reaching Naruto's face. The blonde's eyes crossed as he focused on the appendage. It was so close that it could easily reach out and touch the leg. Then, much to the blonde's shock, his hand rose on its own, and his lone finger poked the tip of the spider's leg.

Much to Naruto's wonder it was the spider that fled back in fear. Once their bodies had touched, the spider had shot back two feet and the sound of heavy panic-like breathing could be heard from the creature. It was then that Naruto realized that the spider was just as afraid of him as he was of it. Just like before the spider made its slow advance towards its summoner, its long brown legs creeping forward. When the spider was the same distance away from Naruto as it was before, it reached out its leg again in hopes of touching its summoner again. Shyly, Naruto did the same, and once again the two made contact. Instead of shying backwards as it had before the spider reached up its second front most leg and began to caress Naruto's lone finger.

Awe touched Naruto as he realized that the spider's short hairs were soft and pleasant. In fact, when the spider began to caress the whole of his hand, Naruto let loose a stifled giggle as the spider's legs had brushed against and area that was quite ticklish. At the sound the spider looked up into Naruto's face and just stared, its fangs slightly parted. Naruto guessed that the creature had forgotten that he was actually alive rather than motionless and inanimate.

Moving his opposite hand to scratch the corner of his jaw Naruto decided to make further contact with the alien creature. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto…what's yours?"

The spider stiffened. It regarded his words with unease, if the shifting back and forth on its six free legs was any indication. But Naruto was patient. So far the creature had yet to attack or harm him in any way, so Naruto decided that the creature deserved to feel comfortable before it made its move.

"M-m-my name is Ringumo…" she said quietly as she continued to caress Naruto's hand.

Naruto noticed the action and smiled even though his mind was telling him to run from the terrifying summon. "Haven't seen a human before, have you?" Naruto asked.

Ringumo brought one of her legs up and bopped herself on the top of her head like a ditzy girl would do when she realized her mistake. "Yeah. Sorry if--"

An explosion of thunder caused Ringumo to shoot up into the air with a girlish squeal. Naruto marveled at the height that she achieved in her frightened leap, but quickly found himself moving into the descent path of Ringumo. She came down with all hairs bristled and eyes wide in fear, or at least Naruto thought that her eyes were wider than 'usual'. As she made contact with his chest as he moved to catch her she bounced once and disappeared with a pop and a burst of smoke.

Naruto sat there silently as he slowly came to grips with what had just happened. The creature he had summoned, a creepy spider at that, had just become frightened by a blast of thunder and dispelled herself. Confusion was all that Naruto could comprehend for some time. He thought of trying to resummon the spider, but the thought of summoning something bigger and most likely _meaner_ spider came to mind. That thought was quickly shot down. He then wondered if he should do nothing, just head to bed like he had original planned. That sounded like the best plan, but because of the adrenaline that was just now ebbing from his system because of his fear he felt more awake then when he had entered Konoha. Naruto also concluded that he needed to digest what had happened…that and a nice warm shower sounded rather appealing at the moment.

So without further ado, a shaken Naruto hobbled his way towards his bathroom as he shed his clothes like a second skin. When he finally entered the sputtering stream of his showerhead lucid thoughts of what had happened swam in his mind. But not once did his mind conceive just _what_ had occurred and just _what _was becoming of his actions. Little did he know that he would soon learn what his small act of innocence had birthed.

XxXxX Summon Realm XxXxX

With an '_ooph'_ Ringumo struck a pile of withered leaves. Almost instantaneously she shot up and whipped about looking for the lights and the sounds of the storm that had raged outside of Naruto's room. What she found instead was that she was back in her realm amongst the large towering trees and plush undergrowth. She swiveled in place, soaking in the soothing light, the soft sounds of the crickets and other insects, and the vibrations of the other grand creatures that made the realm their home.

Ringumo's air of shock and fear soon evaporated into giddy awareness. She was back home. She was back within the realm that housed all of her hundreds of brothers and sisters, her mother, and all of her clansmen. She was back home and she had a story to tell. She rocketed off through the forest as fast as her eight skinny legs could carry her, hell bent on preaching her story to her most important person.

"MOMMY! MOMMY GUESS WHAT?" she screamed as she ran across the forest floor, over logs, and through underbrush.

She was like a brown bullet, dodging other spiders and obstacles, ignoring her many siblings as they shouted out for her to play, and tumbling whenever she lost her footing. But not one of the obstacles deterred her from her mission. She had to find her mother and tell her her new story. When Ringumo was born her mother used to tell her siblings and her tales of their purpose and about how someday they would finally meet a human. Her mother would weave stories about battles and victories to come and about how the great spider clan would help change the world. What the young spider did not know was that her mother told those tales to her siblings and her for a means of silencing them for bed. It was true that an old prophecy was issued by the Grand Elder that they would in fact help bring a new age to the human plane, but that prophecy had been given to the Grand Elder spider more than one thousand years ago and the likelihood that the prophecy would come to fruition was little if not zero. While Ringumo did not know that the tales her mother was feeding her were 'false' she had fallen in love with them. That was one of the main reasons she took to adventuring most of her days; she wandered about the forests, lakes, caves, and deserts in hopes of find a clue as to the beings known as humans. Now that she had finally met one she was hell bent on telling her mother.

A large depression in the landscape came into view. It was deep; around five human stories down, and at the bottom of the massive hole were greens and fallen leaves. Ringumo screeched to a halt, albeit it clumsily, near the rim of the gigantic bowl like depression. When she finally regained her footing in a frantic thrashing of her many limbs she scampered around the rim of the bowl. Her destination was her family's large tree home, and she was undoubtedly sure that her mother was there either taking care of clan matters or relaxing in one of the hot spring baths at the foot of the large tree. As Ringumo ran, she long since ceased her joyful cries do to lack of breath, she heard the soothing voice of her great mother and another close family member. Swiveling her many eyes, Ringumo saw that it was in fact her mother, Jorougumo, and her mother's close friend, Kokubogumo, were having a pleasant conversation while in the shadow of the depression's rim.

Squealing with glee at her findings, Ringumo scampered towards the lip of the hole and sailed off, taking precious care to attach a strand of silk from her spinneret before jumping in case of blundering. As she fell with her impromptu bungee rope she screamed with joy.

"MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!" her voice was high and overflowing with giddy emotions, "MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY! GUESS WHAT? GUESS WHAT, GUESS WHAT?"

Jorougumo stalled mid sentence with Kokubogumo, an old wolf spider, and scuttled around so she could see her daughter flying straight at her at with speed that could only be achieved by the sun spiders of the desert. With a gasp of surprise Jorougumo lumbered forwards in hopes of saving her falling daughter. Out of all her hundreds of children Ringumo and Fangumo, one of Ringumo's close sisters, had caused Jorougumo the most headaches and fear. The two just loved to play and explore where the just shouldn't, like the swamps of the toad clan, the caves of the reptile clan, and the rivers of the hydra and fish clans. Jorougumo could count the hairs on her body for how many times she had had to save her two daughters from their 'adventures' all the while hearing them squeal about their fun all the way home.

Jorougumo swore loudly as she saw that she was not going to make it to her daughters rescue. The mighty spider even tried to dive under her falling daughter in hopes of saving her but even that came short. So she watched in horror as her baby fell to her death, all the while spewing forth something about something or another. Just as the young spiderling was about to become a spider pancake Jorougumo saw a deep gray and faded orange blur shoot past her downed form and towards her falling little one. With not more than five feet until impact, and with Kokubogumo, the gray and orange blur, just three feet away from capturing the child, Ringumo shot back up into the air, causing Jorougumo to look up with shocked awe and Kokubogumo to fall flat on her face many meters away.

"SEE MOMMY, I DID JUST LIKE YOU TOLD ME!" Ringumo shouted out, hoping to be praised by her mother, "I ATTACHED MY SILK JUST LIKE YOU TAUGHT ME!"

And low and be hold she was right. As Jorougumo picked herself up from the leaf strewn floor and approached her bouncing and giggling daughter, she saw that there was indeed a fine strand of silk from her spinneret to the lip of the depression. Jorougumo growled to herself. This was one thing that she could not help but wish that her daughter grew out of, and that was the young girl's recklessness. The girl just did not know what was dangerous and what was acceptably fun. While Jorougumo's other sons and daughters found tree climbing and web practicing fun, Ringumo and Fangumo found 'battling' with their scorpion cousins and skydiving fun. The girl seriously had her priorities wrong.

Kokubogumo had also picked her face off of the earthen floor, and she too growled at the young spider's recklessness. At least it was nice to know that the girl did remember what she was taught by her mother. Some of the other children would listen while their mother taught them about hunting or web building, but the moment they were sent off on their own the precious information would just slide off them like water off of a duck's back. Next thing you knew you would have small spiders fall to their doom from high up just because they had not listened to their mother when she had instructed how to securely place a safety silk.

Ringumo finally plodded down onto the ground from her safety silk and began to dash around her mother and her surrogate aunt like a happy puppy, much to Kokubogumo and Jorougumo's ire. When Jorougumo would try to catch her daughter when the little bundle of energy darted left it only seemed to encourage the spiderling and cause her to strafe right, giggling all the while. Kokubogumo could only make out half of what the youngster was saying and the babble that was coming forth was nonsense at best; something about a thunderstorm and a new friend or something like that. Finally Ringumo tripped in her enthusiasm and Jorougumo and Kokubogumo took that as a queue to surround the young girl so she could not escape.

"Now what have I told you about jumping from high up?" Jorougumo stated as she ran a foreleg across the top of her head.

"MOMMY, IT WAS SO COOL! I WAS PLAYING OUT IN THE ROCKS—"

"Honey, please pay attention," Jorougumo pleaded to her daughter as Ringumo strafed back and forth in front of her with giddy anticipation, her abdomen bouncing about like a tail of a happy dog.

"--AND THEN ALL WENT DARK AND I COULDN'T SEE! BUT I USED MY LEGS TO FEEL AND TO SMELL LIKE YOU SAID, AND, AND, AND—"

"Rin-chan, calm down," Kokubogumo was also trying to reprimand the spiderling, but with her so wound up it was hard to get her to focus.

"—AND HE FELT SOFT AND SMELT KINDA WIERD! BUT A COOL WEIRD! AND HE DIDN'T HAVE A HAIR ON HIM! IT WAS _SO COOL—"_

"Wait, what?" that line was one of the few that few lines that both Jorougumo and Kokubogumo deciphered from the child's rambling. It instantly piqued their interests greatly.

"—'BOOM'! IT WAS SO LOUD THAT I JUMPED—"

"Wait, wait, back up."

"—THEN I WAS BACK HERE! IT FELT SO _WEIRD_! THEN I KNEW THAT IT WAS TRUE!"

"What was true?" Jorougumo was near the end of her rope with her daughter's 'mighty' tale.

"SUMMOMINGS FEEL AWESOME!"

"WHAT?"

Ringumo instantly fell silent at her mother's roar of surprise and bowed her head and body in submission. There were few times that she had heard her mother use that tone of voice and each time usually ended with a time out. Time outs were not fun. Mommy usually subjected her to a ten minute lecture about how what she had done was bad, and then the spider Queen would make Ringumo go to her web until dinner and make her think about what she had done. That meant no climbing, no running, and _defiantly_ no playing. It was absolute torture. Ringumo promised herself that she would bring up Mommy's 'cruelty to arachnids' to the Grand Elder and tell him about how evil time outs were. He would understand. He always understood. He was so nice, wise, and kind. He never once yelled, or at least that was what Ringumo had heard. She was not yet permitted to see the Grand Elder yet. She needed to go through her final molt in order to be allowed to see him, and she had yet to go through her second molt. It just wasn't fa—

"Ringumo, what did you just say?" her mother's voice barred no room for argument. So to quell her mother's growing temper Ringumo recounted her tale to her mother and aunt. This time Ringumo took the time to speak slowly and cleanly so that she would not get in trouble for being over excited.

"Ringumo," Jorougumo huffed after her daughter had finished, "what have I told you about lying?"

"But mom, I'm not lying!" Ringumo whined with indignation.

"Don't talk back to me young lady. I've told you time and again not to lie!"

"But I stopped lying after the Mizugumo incident."

"And what and incident that was," Kokubogumo drawled under her breath and she lay listening to the spiderlings tale, her two right forelegs keeping her head propped up in a lazy sort of way.

"Fine," Jorougumo said with an air of defeat. It was true that after the Mizugumo incident, something that she never wanted to remember, Ringumo had never lied to her, but a tale about being _summoned_ to the human plane was almost unbelievable. "If you're not lying then what proof do you have?"

Ringumo stalled for a moment. Spiders never believed anything unless there was utter proof of it. The practice came from centuries of trusting their webs. If there was a vibration in their web then there was a meal, if there was no vibration then there was no meal.

"Then, then…uh…OH!" her spirits suddenly rose when she remembered that she had actually touched the boy. Ringumo raised her two foremost forelegs up towards her mother's massive head, "I touched his hand…or whatever they are called, so I should still have some of his scent on me!"

The left half of Jorougumo's eyebrows rose up at the evidence. It was one of the strangest articles of evidence that had ever been provided to her but her young daughter still had merit. Jorougumo took one of her legs and caressed her daughter's outstretched limbs and body, all the while inhaling the scent of Ringumo's forelegs. When her mind registered what she had inhaled Jorougumo's eyes widened to the point that they were on the verge of popping out of her head. She scooped up Ringumo with her forelegs and spun her around high in the air cheering with glee as her daughter was.

Kokubogumo looked on with surprise. She had rarely seen Jorougumo act in such a way and the only times that the spider Queen had been this excited had been when the war between the arachnid clans had finally ended. That could only mean that what Ringumo had said had…been…true…

"Oh God," Kokubogumo whispered to herself.

They had finally achieved a summoner! The spider clan _finally_ had a summoner! After centuries of loneliness and nothing the time had come. The great prophecy, passed from God the creator of Heaven and Earth to Shuyoogumo all those centuries ago, was finally beginning to roll. Kokubogumo grinned widely, as much as a spider could, and physically resist the urge to join in with Ringumo as she howled with glee in her mother's arms.

"Kokubogumo," Jorougumo commanded when she finally came to an end of her celebrating, "Assemble _everyone_."

"Everyone?" Kokubogumo asked in awe. "Do you mean…"

"Yes, _everyone_. All the head spiders, all the head scorpions, and all the head mites. _Everyone_. Everyone must hear this. Tell them all to come to the Grand Chamber."

Kokubogumo had to resist gawking at the command. Everyone? Though the great spider wars were over there was still a bitter tension between the scorpion clans and the spider clans. The mites and the ticks were indifferent, and probably the most mature of the three major clans. The ticks and mites understood that the war was over and that all thoughts or ideas of suppression or supremacy should be dealt away with. They understood that these thoughts would only lead to more division and heartache if not more war. The mites and ticks thought that the large grudge that the head of the scorpion clan held against the spider clan was rather childish while at the same time thought that the refusal of the spiders to notice their own wrong doings was pompous. It was the ticks that abstained from debates between the two and usually stayed silent.

But even with the bad blood between the two great tribes Kokubogumo knew that this information needed to be dispersed without delay. Nodding to her friend the old wolf spider dashed up and out of the depression and into the forest. The elder spider would need to talk to the trapdoor, the orb weavers, tarantulas, hunter spiders, and cave spiders of both the forest and caves, just to name a few, about a meeting in the Grand Chamber. After that Kokubogumo would need to quickly venture out into the desert to tell the scorpions and sun spiders about he meeting, the lakes to notify the Mizugumo, and finally the mites and ticks that hid almost everywhere. Overall the endeavor would take about three hours to complete, and about another hour for all parties to meet up in the desired location.

Ringumo looked up to her massive mother from her position on the forest floor. She saw a sparkle that she had only heard stories of within her mother's many eyes as the older spider looked out in the direction of Kokubogumo.

"Mommy," Ringumo said getting her mother's attention, "did I do good?"

"Yes you did honey," Jorougumo answered as she pet the top of her daughter's small head, causing the young girl to purr much like a feline.

"Thanks mommy. I love you."

Jorougumo smiled fondly at her daughter. "I love you too, honey. Now, hop on," she said while allowing her daughter to scamper up her leg and onto her back.

"Where are we going?" Ringumo asked her mother as the large spider daintily climbed up the large depression.

"Remember how you always wanted to meet Shuyoogumo-sama **(4)**?" Jorougumo asked rhetorically as she headed towards the center of the large forest.

"YES!" Ringumo shouted boisterously.

"Well I think that the Grand Elder would like to meet you too, and hear your story."

At hearing that she was going to see the Grand Elder Ringumo's eyes grew larger and larger until the nearly encompassed her entire head while she began to whoop and cheer. The Joruo clan of spiders were the current rulers over all of the other spiders because of their shape shifting abilities, the same ability that allowed Ringumo to enlarge her eyes for the optimal cuteness. Their abilities literally allowed them to look like anything or anyone as long as they had a least one droplet of blood from said person or species. So during the arachnid war the Jorou clan easily disguised themselves so they would appear like other spiders or arachnids for spying and assassinations. It was one of the main causes for the war's end as well as one of the main reasons why the Jorou clan was fear, revered, and hated. It was also the deciding factor as to why the Jorou clan was given leadership over all the spiders and why Jorougumo was decided as the head over all other arachnids.

As Ringumo cheered for her good luck and shouted her thanks to her mother, Jorougumo smiled as she trekked through the forest. Jorougumo was just as giddy as her daughter to see the Grand Elder. He was a male above all other males, and not just in stature. It was rare to be allowed an audience with the prophet, besides Kokubogumo who had a relationship unlike any other with the male; Jorougumo had only talked to the mighty spider no more than five times in the past, while Kokubogumo was granted special clearance to talk to the elder spider whenever she so chose. Shuyoogumo's voice was always the most comforting, his stature was one to respect, and he was the most kind and knowledgeable being she had ever met.

Jorougumo had burst forth from the forest without realizing it and before her stood something that took her breath away no matter how many times she saw it. Before her and her daughter was a tree so tall that the clouds bowed to it. It reached high into the sky, parting clouds, and brushing the sun. Its trunk was teeming with small males going about their duty and large females scurrying from hollow to branch as they too went about their duty. The roots of the massive tree went out in all directions like waves, rolling and curving in ways that put water to shame. In between the trees many gnarled roots were hot spring baths nestled between the roots themselves and large boulders carried in by the massive tarantulas of the inner forest. Giggling within the springs were spiders morphed as their human selves, gossiping and enjoying themselves as male servants tended to their needs and wants. This mighty tree, which had stood since the day that Shuyoogumo first birthed them and their arachnid brethren with his wife Arachne **(5)**, was the Jorou clan's home. Jorougumo and her 300 sons and daughters were graced to call the inner most sanctum their personal quarters. Several other massive and impressive trees were also found in the surrounding area, but none were near the shear size and mass of the Jorou clan tree. The other trees were homes to other spider races, like orb weavers, jumping spiders, crab spiders, lynx spiders, and venom spiders.

"Mommy, why are we back home? I thought we were going to go see the Grand Elder," Ringumo bemoaned when she saw her mother admiring their home.

"Don't worry Rin-chan," Jorougumo cooed to her daughter as she headed towards the hot springs, "we'll go see the Grand Elder, but first we must wash up."

"But, but, but," Ringumo sputtered out when her mother lifted her off of her back and onto the ground in front of a hot spring bath, "I want to go _now."_

To answer her daughter's childish demand Jorougumo's massive form slowly began to melt and fold away until all that remained was a woman. She stood close to six and half feet tall, with long elegant legs, a _healthy_ buxom figure, and deep brown curly hair that was held in a loose ponytail. Her face was the most astonishing feature for there were two beautiful gold eyes. The eyes were gleaming golden and sparkled as she stared down at her daughter. She held herself with the air a Persian queen, smiled like perfection, and spoke like an angel. "Now honey, it will take about three hours for Kokubo-chan to get the word across to all the major arachnid heads that there is a meeting with the Grand Elder," Jorougumo confessed to her daughter as Ringumo teared up. "During which I want you cleaned up and on your bestest behavior, you got me missy." As she finished she waged her finger playfully in front of her daughter's face causing pout and tears to evaporate with a giggle.

"Ok mommy," she cheered. Ringumo then ran towards the closet pool and jumped in screaming, "Cannonball."

The other Jorou that were enjoying their bath laughed at the spiderling's actions and soon an impromptu splashing fight broke out between the baths occupants. Jorougumo just shook her head at her daughter's actions and at the actions on the other Jorou clanswomen. It was hard to believe that these women were great warriors of the Jorou clan, and that they had killed many enemies in the name of duty and peace. It both made her proud of their valor as well as saddened by their actions. It saddened the spider Queen that war had struck their home and that these beautiful and kind women had had to raise fang and sword against their brothers and sisters. Soon though, her small sad and contemplative smile turned into a large grin and with a running jump Jorougumo shouted, "Cannonball," just as her daughter did.

XxXxX Outside the Grand Chamber XxXxX

The Grand Chamber was found in the exact center of the spider realm. It was a mighty enclosure dedicated solely to the father of all arachnids, Shuyoogumo the Grand Elder. The chamber was hidden underground with links to each of the four main sections of the spider realm: the caves that held the reclusive and stealth cave spiders and ticks, the desert that held the strong and unsurpassable scorpions and sun spiders, the forest that held the ingenious web and hunting spiders, and the lakes that held the noble Mizugumo. All had been birthed from Shuyoogumo and his wife, Arachne, eons ago when the spider realm was first created by God.

Ringumo had heard all the typical tales about the Grand Elder; tales about how his wisdom was unmatched, about how his love and kindness was unfathomable, and about how his size was massive. That was what she was truly looking forward to. Her mother was a large spider and so were the tarantulas of the inner forest, but this 'father of all spiders' was supposed to be, like, a bagillion times bigger then her mommy, and that was pretty big. So during the long five minute walk to the Grand Chamber Ringumo could hardly sit still. Sure her mother's shoulder was comfortable and all but this was monumental, like when she found that ball shaped rock monumental.

Jorougumo held in her excitement better than her daughter, she was only shaking a little bit. Shuyoogumo was a wonderful being and being able to meet him was a true honor. She just couldn't wait. She had to physically stop herself from running down the long tunnel to the Grand Chamber by clenching her fist. The smile that mirrored her daughter's did not leave her face though.

As Jorougumo walked she was followed by all of the prominent web and hunter spiders as well as the tarantulas of the forest. Some were in their human forms like Jorougumo was, those that shared in the Jorou clan blood anyway, while others thought it to be more honorable to be in their original forms when within the presence of the Grand Elder. All were silent as they trekked. It was an honor and a privilege to be taking part in such an occasion and each spider present knew this. While Kokubogumo had only given a brief reason as to why they had been summoned before the Grand Elder each spider had an inkling as to the true purpose to the meeting.

As they marched through the earthen tunnel to the center Ringumo waved to her surrogate brothers, sisters, and aunts. In fact there were only a handful of male spiders present, and the reason was that the males of the arachnid species were usually suppressed due to their lack of strength and size. Males were not as powerful as the females nor were the close to the same size; in many cases males were three to four sizes _smaller_ than their female counterparts. One such male who was exempt from this 'rule was Ookamigumo, a veteran from the arachnid war. He was the Lord and head of the hunting spiders. While this was an uncommon thing for a male to be the leader of a spider clan like the hunters he was a special case. Ookamigumo was a Portia spider, a hunter of hunters, and his ruthless nature and skills had put him head and shoulders above all the other Portia or hunters for that matter. In fact the deciding factor to his appointment to leadership was a victory where Ookamigumo had infiltrated an enemy camp and decimated the fifteen occupants in a single assault, by himself. This act had helped greatly in the war and had solidified Ookamigumo's rank.

While Ookamigumo stalked just to the left of Jorougumo in his spider form Kokubogumo followed the Queen of spiders to her right. Kokubogumo was the head of the wolf spider clan for one reason: she was the only wolf spider left. During the war the scorpions had focused a large chunk of their personnel to exterminating the wolf spiders. The reason being was that the wolf spider's superior eyesight was attributing to heavily to the spiders victories. So in one month's time the scorpions and their allies had destroyed most of the lone hunters. All but Kokubogumo had been killed. She held no ill will towards the scorpions or those that had contributed to her clan's eradication. When asked why she said that she was happy it had happened to her because she knew she could handle the heartbreak; she did not know if any other individual could handle the loss as she did. This did not stop her from weeping every so often at night when she thought that no one was looking, but it what was done was done. There was no way to rewind time.

The troop of spiders had now reached the opening to the Grand Chamber and all stalled before entering. Jorougumo sighed through pursed lips, mentally preparing herself for what was to come. While she was near giddy to see the Grand Elder she was _not_ giddy to see many of those that felt that she was inadequate to lead. Some of the scorpions thought as much and ever some of the cave spiders. The scorpions and the cave spiders felt that their lots in territory contradicted with their abilities, and they felt like they had received the 'short end of the stick' when it came to living arrangements. Jorougumo had tried to reason with the high tempered scorpions about how the desert was best suited for them and even offered some of the forest as their territory as well. Alas, the scorpions felt that the gift was a 'pity gift' and an insult to their abilities. The scorpions were a _very_ proud race of arachnids, feeling that their hardships of the desert had made them out to be a more understanding and tough race. The cave spiders had a similar mindset but were happy with their home. They only wished that they would be given credit to their abilities of stealth.

The ticks and mites were indifferent to the main races as well as the Mizugumo. The ticks just went about their lives doing what they did best: sucking blood and being unseen. The Mizugumo did the same as the ticks and mites and lived away from the arguing within their large lakes. The only difference that the Mizugumo held with the main branch of the spider clans was that the females of the forest spiders were the prominent members of the race. In the Mizugumo society it was the other way around; the males ruled over the females. In a sense the Mizugumo were much like how the humans were rumored to be. The Mizugumo felt slightly offended by the traditions of the forest spiders, but their high intelligence had taught the Mizugumo to understand the traditions of the Jorou were the Jorou's and the traditions of the Mizugumo were the Mizugumo's.

Jorougumo brushed off such thoughts like dust of her short length, low cut black and gold kimono. This was neither the time nor the place to be thinking about their family's discrepancies and differences. Today was a happy day and should be treated as such. Sighing once again to calm her nerves Jorougumo turned her head slightly to fix her daughter with a stern glance.

"Remember what I told you," Jorougumo reminded.

"That I must be on my bestest behavior!" Ringumo quipped from her shoulderside seat.

"That's my girl," Jorougumo smiled as she rubbed the top of Ringumo's just as the young spiderling liked.

The smaller spiderling giggled as she moved her head to her mother's hand. The other spiders looked on with small smiles. The young were loved in the arachnid community. They were guarded, revered, and taught so that they could grow up to be strong and honorable adults and carry one the races traditions and teachings. The spiders present chuckled and giggled at Ringumo's playful nature but sobered immediately when their Queen turned and faced the opening into the Grand Chamber. Without a single word to her brethren, Jorougumo stood to her fullest and marched into the presence of their elder and prophet.

The chamber was rightfully titled the Grand Chamber. No other chamber could have even hoped to house Shuyoogumo's enormous size. It was a perfectly circular structure, with golden webs lining the walls and floor. On one half of the chamber were four tunnels spaced evenly amongst themselves. One tunnel looked to made up of sandstone; this tunnel lead to the desert. One tunnel was dark to the point of blindness; this tunnel lead to the caves. One tunnel looked to be made up of brown earth and tree roots; this tunnel lead to the forest. The last tunnel was more of an underground river for it had no floor. Instead the tunnel's floor was made of a crystal blue river; this tunnel lead to the lakes. All the tunnels funneled into the chamber and before the tunnels was the Grand Elder.

His size was something of myth. He was anchored to the chambers floor by strands of his own silk and oil. The oil was an oil produced by spiders to allow them to walk across their web without being stuck. The oils were old and had solidified through the years until it had formed into a sort of cement. In all honesty he appeared to be a mountain sized statue rather than an all seeing and benevolent prophet. His many hairs that covered his body were snow white and cover his legs, his head, his chest, and his massive abdomen. His size literally rivaled that of a large mountain, towering over even the gigantic tarantulas. It had once been rumored that Shuyoogumo was so big that when God had wished to talk to him, all Shuyoogumo needed to do was stretch up and he would be past the clouds and at the foot of God's thrown. His eight eyes had long since been fogged by time. The only eye that he could see from was one lone ruby red eye near the bottom left. It was said that the wolf spiders had received their eyes from Shuyoogumo just like how the jumping spiders had received their strong legs. In fact each arachnid could trace back their more prominent and blessed skill back to the father of spiders; the scorpion's armor, the Jorou's shape shifting, the tarantula's size, the orb weaver's web, and the ticks bite, all were said to have come from the ancient spider's genetics.

Speaking of the other great arachnids, Jorougumo inclined her head to her sisters as they too entered the Grand Chamber. The scorpions were first to enter after the web and hunting spiders. They lumbered forth with their equally enormous size. While most were not as big as the tarantulas most were near twenty feet long and around five feet tall with even taller tails. And these scorpions were suppressing their true size. Just as Jorougumo had lead her specific section of spiders in the Grand Chamber, Itamisori was the leader of the scorpions. She was a massive emperor scorpion, rivaling Jorougumo when she was in her spider form at full size, with a glistening black outer skeleton, and gigantic claws. The scorpions were not like spiders in the sense that the scorpions were not able to transform into a human form, and because of such the scorpions took great pride in their claws and stingers. Jorougumo inclined her head to her co-boss and got a reluctant nod in return. Behind her were many of her brethren as well as some of sun spiders that also lived within the desert. They were fast runners, faster than any of the other arachnids, and feared for both their speed and their impressive jumping abilities.

Another thing that was unique to the arachnid summons was that while there was a 'true' leader to the whole race there was a total of three boss summons: one for the ticks and mites, one for the spiders, and one for the scorpions. There were also sub-bosses that were the heads of select section so both the spider clans and the scorpion clans; one example is Ookamigumo would be considered a sub-boss as well as Kokubogumo. The arachnid war had been over who should be the rightful leader the arachnid clan as a whole with the now dead ex-scorpion boss as the leader to the opposing faction. Itamisori had taken the helm of leading the scorpions after her mother had been killed and the war silenced. Each boss summon dictated their specific race with all major issues and complaints going to Jorougumo to over look.

After the scorpions and Itamisori had entered the chamber, next to enter were the cave spiders. Because of their lack of eye sight they walked slowly and with calculated steps using their sensitive hairs to help them along. Out of all the arachnids they were the calmest. Years of darkness and blindness had taught them as much. The ticks and mites were most likely with them but in all honesty Jorougumo could not see them or find them do to their small size. She just shrugged it off. If they were not there then they weren't, no way around it.

Finally the Mizugumo swam from their tunnel and into a pool that was found near where Jorougumo was standing. The only visible part of the Mizugumo was their air sacks that covered their abdomens. Luckily the water that they swam in was crystal clear so those that looked into the depths of the pool would be able to see a distorted image of the Mizugumo.

Jorougumo nodded to both the cave spiders, though she surmised that they did not know it, and also nodded to the Mizugumo, who nodded in return. When the silent introductions were complete Jorougumo turned her eyes back upon the silent and magnificent Grand Elder. Scurrying to and fro about him were old and large attending male orb weaving spiders. Once they had grown to a certain age, and if they were not eaten during a mating ritual, the older male orb weavers were assigned to be the servants to the Grand Elder. Their tasks consisted of feeding Shuyoogumo, cleaning him, and keeping him company, until they finally died. It was a noble task and all orb weavers looked forward to the day that they would be able to serve their father until their dying breath.

Now was the moment of truth, and though Jorougumo had talked to the Grand Elder on several occasions the thought of waking him still sent shivers down her spine. Taking a deep breath Jorougumo knelt down before the ancient spider and bellowed forth, "Oh Grand Elder, please awaken, for we, the arachnid clan, your faithful children, wish for your guidance."

Nothing happened immediately but all the arachnids in the chamber knew this. It would take several seconds for the mountain sized spider to awaken, but watching him as he awoke was a show all in its own. Slowly a vacuum of air was drawn into the creature's lungs **(6)**, causing many of the arachnids present to dig their legs into the ground lest they be inhaled as well. Immediately after a gust of wind, exhaled breath, nearly blew most of the spiders off of their feet. This continued for several more breaths until the eight enormous eyes snapped open and focused up the much smaller summons. All eyes were a light pink except for the one ruby red eye that still held its light. At recognizing his children, Shuyoogumo began to move. He shook his head slowly causing large sheets of solidified oil to fall to the ground and shattered with a large _'crash'. _His long and massive forelegs shook off the solidified oil as well and stretched to regain circulation. With his limbs back to as they should and with his eyes open Shuyoogumo came to complete awareness. Realizing that he had company, Shuyoogumo blinked and stared down at his legacy with his lone red eye.

"Oh Grand Elder we beseech you to—"

"Oh my, oh my," Shuyoogumo chuckled, shaking the chamber to its foundation, "What have I told you about formalities, Jorou-chan?"

"But sir—"

"No buts, young lady," Shuyoogumo berated with mirth. "Just call me Jiji. Nothing more nothing less…"

Jorougumo blushed at the request and the other arachnids shifted uncomfortably as they stood. It was a strange request by one so great, everyone thought. They believed that if anyone deserved a title the Grand Elder should. He had been the source of their being. "Yes…Jiji-sama."

"That's better…" the massive spider hummed to himself as he inspected all who were present. "Oh my, oh my! What is this? You _all_ have come to see me! How nice…is it my birthday?" the attempt of a joke sent several into a fit of giggles, especially young Ringumo.

"No Jiji-sama," Jorougumo stated over the giggle. "We have come here with news."

Four, mismatched, eyebrows rose, "Oh? And what news do you bring this old arachnid?"

"News of a summoner." The simple statement ended the giggling and caused all eyes to focus on Jorougumo.

"Blasphemy," Itamisori hissed in outrage. "We have never, nor will we ever, have a summoner! You lie!"

"I speak the truth," Jorougumo spoke calmly as she turned to her fellow boss. "My daughter was privileged to be the one summoned by this nameless human."

"That is you evidence?" Itamisori questioned, "The words of a child?"

"Not just her words but her scent. She has the smell of a human male on her."

An uproar came from both the spiders and the scorpions. Males were small and weak, but to have one as a summoner was almost a disgrace. Itamisori clicked her claws dangerously as she ridiculed Jorougumo, rocking forward and backwards on her black plated legs. The cave spiders stumped their legs in a show that they too did not like the sound of things. The Mizugumo bubbled and gurgled in annoyance at arguments that males were no good for warriors or leaders.

"Silence!" Jorougumo shouted over the mayhem. "The reason I have called you all here is to _affirm_ the story of my daughter. The Grand Eld—Jiji-sama will be able to see if this story is true or false."

Silence consumed the chamber. "Oh my, oh my, still fighting?" Shuyoogumo hummed. "I thought that all of my children had ended this senseless squabbling by now."

"We have Jiji-sama," Itamisori replied to the Grand Elder bitterly. "It's just the news of a summoner is something that you do not run across everyday."

Shuyoogumo hummed again at his daughter's answer, his low note causing the chamber to vibrate and shake. While the Grand Elder most likely did not hear the hidden insult, Jorougumo did. She scowled at her brethren and at the childishness of Itamisori. The low hum escalated until the whole chamber rumbled to the point of shaking some unsuspecting orb weavers from the wall's webs. Shuyoogumo's booming laughter shook the chamber and sent some of the cave spiders tumbling. "Are you still mad a Jorou-chan for kidnapping you doll, Itami-chan?"

Itamisori's armor lightened as she blushed, "She knew it was my favorite, and she _still_ stole it—" at realizing her outburst Itamisori clamped her claws in front of her mouth and her armor lightened even more.

Giggling and chuckling could be heard but Shuyoogumo's earthshaking laughter drowned them all out. Jorougumo brought her kimono sleeve up to cover her smile, as per proper lady educate, and she turned her face away when Itamisori shot her an ice melting glare. When the mirth slowly evaporated Jorougumo decided to whisper one last thing to the irritated scorpion.

"I gave it back…" Jorougumo whispered o her 'sister' summon.

"But it was missing a claw…" Itamisori hissed back.

"Oh come one! I made it up to you didn't I?"

Itamisori blush returned but she did not answer. Shuyoogumo still stuttered his speech but he was able to say, "Allow me to see if this accusation is true or not."

Jorougumo saw this as Ringumo's queue and nodded to her to hop down. At first Ringumo was not entirely sure, Shuyoogumo was a _lot_ bigger than she had first expected. A smiling nod from her mother eased the young spiderling's nerves. She hesitantly scurried down her mother's arm and leg, and walked out towards the Grand Elder.

The other arachnids looked on and smiled at her hesitant behavior. It was a common reaction when standing before the Grand Elder, and especially for one as small and young as Ringumo. The size comparison between the two was like comparing a fly to a hippopotamus; meaning that Ringumo _really_ felt insignificant. When the massive arachnid finally turned his one seeing eye onto Ringumo she squealed and hid behind her forelegs.

"Oh my, oh my," Shuyoogumo hummed, "I did not mean to scare you little one…" Ringumo peaked up from behind her legs at the massive form of Shuyoogumo, but did not take her legs from her eyes.

"What's your name little one?" he cooed to her.

"R-R-Ringumo…s-s-sir…" she stuttered out.

"Oh my, no 'sir'. Just call me Jiji."

"J-J-J-Jiji…chan"

"That's a good girl," he praised. "Now I'm going to do something. I promise it won't hurt, but you have to sit still for me. Do you think you can do that for lil ol' me?"

"YES!" Ringumo shouted out happily, causing some of the arachnids to snicker and Shuyoogumo to guffaw.

"Good girl, now hold still." With that one warning the Grand Elder moved one of his free forelegs towards the young spiderling.

Ringumo braced for impact as the 'finger' of the foreleg descended down upon her. As it descended upon her she remembered a time when her mother had used her body to block out rain by standing over her brothers and sisters. The size and the shape of the enormous 'finger' reminder Ringumo of her mother on that dark rainy day, and she felt the same comfort and ease as she had that day. With her eyes closed Ringumo felt a small weight on her forehead, and within a second it left. She chanced a look and realized that whatever Jiji-chan had wished to do was done.

During the strange request all those that had been watching held their breath, especially Jorougumo. Though the Queen knew that nothing bad would happen to her daughter, the sight of several _tons_ of flesh bearing down on her young still sent on easy feeling through her heart. The instant Shuyoogumo touched Ringumo's forehead he removed his foreleg and released a deep, gusting sigh. The force blew Ringumo back into her mothers waiting arms with a giggle. The Grand Elder took in another deep breath, sucking his children nearly off their feet and sending Ringumo into another set of giggles, and released it with a _'whoosh'._

"Oh my, oh my," the ancient spider hummed, "look upon my web, children, and see the face of our new summoner…"

Suddenly the ceiling of the Grand Chamber exploded with light and colors. Each creature, including the Grand Elder, gazed up to the high ceiling and gaped. The webs that adorn the ceiling were ones of unmatchable beauty and intricacy. It was said that the Grand Elder and Arachne used this very web to birth all of the arachnid races. This was the cradle to all arachnids, and the object of Shuyoogumo's great sight. While the Grand Elder was all but blind now, he used the cradle web to see not only into the present but also into the past and into the future. The toads had their one crystal ball, a shoddy and foolhardy thing Shuyoogumo would say from time to time, which used the same principles as the cradle web. But the web was absolute. Nothing was hidden from its strands, unlike with the crystal ball of the toads. No illusion or falsehood could deceive it.

It.

Was.

Absolute.

"Oh, my. Look children, look and see."

Upon the enormous cradle web a face materialized, graced with a bright infectious smile. It was a face of a boy, maybe the age of thirteen or fourteen. His hair was like it was made of pure gold, his eyes looked as if they too were made of a precious substance, his cheeks held marks like three slashes on each side, and his teeth that graced his infectious smile looked to be made of ivory. Though his bright clothes had much to be desired for one who was a Ninja the cunning look in his eye seemed to make up for it.

"HI NARUTO!" Ringumo shouted up to the web with an exuberant wave.

"This is the boy?" Itamisori asked unimpressed.

Shuyoogumo's one good eye joined the other seven eyes as it glazed over as his all seeing sight filtered out of him and into his web. "Yes," his voice was low and long, drawn out. "This is he…this is he…"

"Jiji-sama?" Jorougumo asked in worry. She had never seen the Grand Elder acting as such, and it worried her slightly.

The images of the web melted away and began to show a boy alone on a swing, staring out at the other children as they paraded about with smiling faces and family members. His sapphire eyes were cold and dark, weighed down by sadness and loss. The image showed some of the adults sending mocking glares and subtle smirks. They seemed to enjoy the boy's sadness and woe. They encouraged it. The image refocused on the boy as he sat staring wistfully at the families and their joy, and a deep shadow began to form around him. The shadow exploded outwards, engulfing and consuming the landscape and the smug smiling faces, until all was cloaked in the darkness.

"Oh my, oh my…"

"Jiji-sama," Jorougumo asked as she gazed up at the lone figure of Naruto, "what does this mean?"

As if to answer the spider Queen's question the image exploded yet again with fire and lights. All around the boy images of hell and destruction flickered about. Visions of war and dying men ran across the web with Naruto at the epicenter. Ringumo screamed with fright and hid with her mother's breast. The other arachnids were also looking on with awe at the images. Soon a figure made itself known in the center of the image, towering over Naruto's smaller body. The form made itself out of fire and earth and decaying bodies. It grew tall, taller than the tarantulas, and before the arachnids could brace themselves a lone, glowing red eye consumed the web. It swiveled on the webs surface, taking in all that stood below it. Soon it focused on Shuyoogumo, and Shuyoogumo focused on the eye.

"Oh my, oh my…" Shuyoogumo muttered. "So that is where you have been hiding…"

The images of death and war instantly dissolved, as did the blood red eye, and again the web showed the blond haired boy standing alone as a crowd of men, women, and children stood in a line with their backs to the boy. They took no notice at the boy as he shouted at them, pleaded at them to notice him. They just continued to stand with their backs to him. Only a handful of humans took the time to turn and recognize him: a young man with a scar marring his face, an old man with a wide brimmed hat, and a young girl with pale lavender eyes. The image melted again and showed the same boy standing before a crowd of angry faces. The faces were shouting at him and cursing him as he wept, begging to be forgiven. The angry humans would have none of that and descended upon the begging child with clenched fists.

Blackness encompassed the web and soon the boy came into focus. He was standing in front of a store. Looking left and right, the boy preformed some kind of transformation and disguised himself as a different person before entering the shop to make a purchase. The web changed again and showed the boy running from masked Ninja with a smile on his face. Behind him was a large mountain face, covered in paint. The web changed a final time a revealed the boy with a larger than average spider standing before him. He seemed to be talking to her but suddenly a flash of light caused the web to go blank.

The room remained silent as the Grand Elder moved from his upright position to a more relaxed position. Jorougumo was slowly processing what she had seen, as were the other arachnids within the chamber. Even the cave spiders in their blindness were allowed to see the webs prophesying. Jorougumo was still unsettled by the eye, that blood red and ill eye. It sent shivers down her spine and filled her veins with ice. But something else also bothered the Queen of spiders; the vision seemed to hold no future images or prophecies.

"Jiji-sama…what was that all about?" Jorougumo asked with many other arachnids adding nods to support her question.

"That was just a few glimpses of our new summoner," he said wearily.

"But," Jorougumo hesitated. "But what did all that _mean_?"

Instead of answering her question, Shuyoogumo addressed her daughter. "Rin-chan," he asked quietly, "What is the boy's name?"

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto…I think…" she said as she touched her chin with her right foreleg.

"Uzumaki…Naruto…" he hummed to himself as the other arachnids digested the name of their new summoner. It was an unusual, but deep name. To be named after a moving force as a maelstrom was an honor, and to have a surname of a whirlpool was just as peculiar and strong.

"But Jiji-sama…what was with all of those images? What was with the adults, the shadows…" she gulped, "and the eye?"

"Oh my, oh my. This boy has felt the sting of neglect. He has suffered under the heel of persecution just for being alive," the Grand Elder mused quietly.

Everyone within the chamber winced at the proclamation. They too knew of the bitter taste of neglect and persecution. They were arachnids, one of the most hated creatures on the planet do to their strange forms, predatory and cannibalistic natures. Their kind was killed because of fear, and hated because of their appearance. Even though the summoning spiders had never had direct contact with humans, unless they were of the Jorou clan when they snuck into the human realm in order to cultivate blood to hone and complete their human forms, the spiders and scorpions and ticks still knew how their dumber brethren were treated.

"But what of the eye?" Itamisori's curiosity got the better of her.

Shuyoogumo paused as he collected his thoughts. He debated if he should tell his children the boy's secret or if he should wait. "The eye belongs to a being old and vile. It seems to be tied to the boy, but at the same time separate from him. It appears that the hatred towards young Naruto-kun is focused solely on the owner of the eye."

"That doesn't answer the question," Itamisori mumbled to herself.

"That may be true," Shuyoogumo chuckled, causing his daughter to blush at realizing that he had heard her disrespecting back talk, "But it is not my story to tell you. It is Naruto's story. Just remember," he said sternly as he fixed each and every one of his children with his sole seeing eye, "that to judge someone because of something they could not control is one of the greatest sins and dishonors…"

Though the arachnids did not know the reason to the 'outburst' they nodded nonetheless. They understood what it was like to be judged because of what they were, and they understood what the pain of senseless persecution.

"Jiji-sama," said a cave spider, "I noticed that none of the images were of the future…why was that?"

"Oh my, oh my, so you all noticed that," Shuyoogumo said as he rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Well, the truth is that the boy's future is …" he paused and waited for his children's anticipation to grow, "…something that I just don't want to tell you right now!"

If facefaulting was an actual occurrence than each of the arachnids would have been eating a mouth full of dirt. "Jiji-sama!" Jorougumo yelled at the elder spider's behavior.

"What?" he asked shrugging his massive shoulders, "A person's future is something that should not be spouted just willy-nilly. Great damage can come from knowing the fate of a man."

"But Jiji-sama~"

"No," he said childishly, turning his head to the side and crossing his first and second legs. "I'm not tellin'."

Jorougumo sighed at the father of all arachnids' behavior. This being was supposed to be the wise and all knowing epicenter of all arachnids but he sometimes acted more like a child rather than a century old demigod. She moved her hand and began to massage the bridge of her nose as other arachnid lords tried to get the Grand Elder to talk. All failed and only helped the elder spider act even more childish.

Suddenly an unlikely source spoke up. Ringumo had found a cozy place to rest on the top of her mother's head and was watching in great amusement at the Grand Elder's actions and the other arachnids' attempts to get him to talk. She too was curious about what the boy's future held so she suddenly threw her own two cents into the debate.

"Could you at least give us a hint, Jiji-chan? Pwetty pwease!" she said with her best puppy dog eyes she could muster do to her Jorou blood. She even seemed to conjure up a quivering lower lip, but many still wondered how she managed such a feat.

The other arachnids became silent at the child's plea and were stunned with they heard the Grand Elders reply. "Oh my, oh my," he cooed loudly. "For you, my daughter, I will give you a small hint."

All the arachnids gawked as Ringumo hopped from her mother's and rushed towards Shuyoogumo as he leaned down to the spiderling's level. How could a being that could fight on par against the vilest of demons be reverted to a doting grandfather with just two sentences? When Ringumo stood before Shuyoogumo's giant head all of the other arachnids became quiet as they too wished to hear the 'hint'.

"This boy, Naruto," Shuyoogumo began with Ringumo nodding her head obediently, "is a _very special_ boy. He doesn't have many friends."

"That's not good…" Ringumo said solemnly.

"Indeed it isn't. But you know what? He's a very kind boy. So kind that he will save the world one day…"

Ringumo gasped as did the other arachnids. "REALLY?!" Ringumo blurted eagerly.

"Really, really," Shuyoogumo chuckled. "But in order for this to happen he is going to need friends. Will you be his friend?"

"Uh huh!" Ringumo nodded vigorously.

"That's a good girl."

Jorougumo stared on with a slightly agape mouth. This boy was supposed to save the world? That was a hefty destiny but something else caused the woman shock. What was he supposed to save the world from? The eye, or something greater? What could possibly be strong enough to bring the human realm to its end? How strong did this boy have to become in order to combat it? Many unknowns began to whirl around in Jorougumo's mind as she digested what Shuyoogumo had revealed.

She looked back up to the cradle web as if wishing to see more of the boy. What was he like? What did his past hold? What other details were held in his future? But all questions were dwarfed by her first thought: what was he like? She had heard 'horror' stories about neglecting summoners and sour summoners and downright evil summoners. Judging by the boys neglect she feared that he may fall into one of those three categories. She sighed to herself and massaged the bridge of her nose again.

'_I could use a drink,'_ she thought to herself.

Itamisori was unusually quiet. She too was contemplating the boy. He may know suffering akin to the scorpions suffering but that did not warrant their allegiance. She also did not like how he did not fight against those that suppressed him. He just whinnied and bowed to their will instead of fighting back.

"Jiji-sama," Itamisori stated suddenly, "I think I speak for the Sasori clan as a whole when I say that we will not see him as our summoner until he proves to us otherwise. "

"What?!" Jorougumo hissed towards her fellow summon.

"I mean what I say," she stated calmly. "Until the boy can prove that he is capable to uphold the beliefs and the practices of the Sasori clan we will not permit him to summon us."

"That is unreasonable," the spider Queen blurted.

"No it is not," was the emperor scorpions curt reply

Jorougumo growled at her 'sister' and her stubbornness. She suddenly turned to Shuyoogumo, "This isn't fair, Jiji-sama. Tell her that she is not fair!"

"Actually," Shuyoogumo confessed mournfully, "Itamisori is within her rights to deny summoning privileges. We, the arachnid clan, are not like other clans. Unlike the toads and the snakes we have three different kinds of bosses: one for the spiders, one for the scorpions, and one for the ticks. It is within the bosses right to deny or condone summoning."

"Then we the Nomi clan seconds the Sasori's decision **(7)**," came a squeaking call from one of the cave spiders back.

"Please," Jorougumo begged, "I know he is new but give him a chance!"

"Until he shows aspects akin to those of the Nomi tribe then he will be allowed to summon us," said the unseen tick boss summon.

Jorougumo's mind began to race. Though she too did not the boy she was still willing to give him a chance. She also feared that if she did not act up quickly the spiders under her would call for the denial of summoning. Another fear came to bear down on her. The fear was that Itamisori and the Nomi clans' stubbornness would cause them to withhold their summoning rights permanently.

"Well, I speak for the rest of the Tsuchigumo clan when _I _say that we will allow and _embrace_ the new summoner named Uzumaki Naruto," with each emphasized word Jorougumo sent meaningful glares towards the two other boss summons. Itamisori and the tick boss summon said nothing, but heard the insult nonetheless.

"Oh my, oh my. Then let it be known that from this day forth Uzumaki Naruto has been recognized as the first and sole summoner to the Spider contract!" Shuyoogumo's decree was strong and commanding. But he added quietly, "and the rest of the Arachnid family…in time…"

XxXxX End XxXxX

**Beta corner**

Beta Notes: Well it took some doing and self hypnosis to get over my arachnophobia, but I managed and now here's another fic from everyone's favorite evil ruler of sheep. I'm mostly helping with plot, as my grammar in itself is a 'B+' at best.

**Beta corner**

(1): Yes summon scrolls are massive and bulky, but I thought that a more…_travel_ size scroll would be appropriate for the arachnids and spiders.

(2): Naruto does not know that to complete the contract you have to imprint the page with the fingers of the hand used to write with. He did this action out of his own…_childishness._

(3): Port in the storm = Namikaze. I thought this would be an appropriate choice of words.

(4) Shuyoo: first, most important. I thought naming the father of all arachnids "The first spider" was appropriate.

(5) Arachne is the Greek mythological person that was the mother of all spiders. Look her up on wiki or in actual literature. I know I put a lot of biblical themes in my stories but I thought this one was good as well. See I can show diversity.

(6) Spider don't have 'real' lungs but rather "book lungs". I honestly don't know _how_ the book lungs work, but I felt adding human characteristics to the spiders would make them easier to understand.

(7) Nomi is actually 'flea' in Japanese but I couldn't find the Japanese word for tick or mite so I went with flea. If someone can find the actual word please notify me.

AN: Naruto gets the Arachnid Summoning scroll. Yay! For people who don't know, and most of you probably don't, I like summons and outside help for Naruto. Don't know why, I just do. Most of the information I will be using in this fic regarding spiders and other arachnids will come from wiki and from a book titled _Spiders of the World_ by Rod and Ken Preston-Mafham. I also do not own their knowledge but you should check out their book. It is detailed and holds a lot of information.

Now in all honest I am afraid of spiders, to the point of screaming. But when I read _The Most Heinous Crime_ it changed my thoughts about spiders and made me wish to know more. Thank you Mr. Talon for sparking my drive to over come my fear. On a side note, you may notice that I switch about using the words 'clan', 'tribe', 'boss', and similar words. This story is still in its infancy so please give me time to flesh out the titles for summons, bosses, sub-bosses, and the like.

Also tell me what you think of me ending all of the scorpions' names with –sori. It's similar in ending all of the spiders' names with –gumo.

Also, like my other work, this story is a harem. For the record the four women have been chosen (though are subject to change _**via my and/or my advisors notice/direction)**_ so please do not hassle me with pairing choices. I will regard them but most likely put them to the back of my mind.

Also, in my profile is a poll, please check it out. I will give to the end of April (~6 weeks) to vote. Please do.

And finally. Please review. If you do please give advice on either _**writing style and/or creativity**_. _**Supportive criticism**_ is also appreciated, but keep it nice. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Do not criticize just to be mean. Put some thought into your questions or advice, I want this story to be something that you will enjoy, will give you insight to living, and just a plain good story; I can only achieve this if you help me.

I hope you have a great day and stay healthy.

TTFN

Evilsheeplordthatsaysmoo


	2. Chapter 2

Moo

Ah, hello my lovers, my haters, my brothers, my sisters, my friends, and my foes. Welcome to the newest addition to my impromptu creation.

I have now started college, and have come to enjoy it as I did last year. Work, class, and my new big screen TV (I love craigslist) now fill my time. But do not think that I have forgetting my readers. I will have life to work with, but I have set aside time to write for you.

I wish I had more to say about my life or to uplift you in some way, but I can not. Well, I could say this, I realized that may be a little intimating looking, and that the freshmen girls are rather cute. These two things do not couple together well. Oh well, I don't need a gf right now.

Anyway, please enjoy my work.

**Disclainer:** I do not know Naruto or the summons of this story, I will own some summons but not others. For what I do own, well Willy the ram is one and the ducks are another thing that I own, so I'm all good.

XxXxX Chapter 2 XxXxX

Sleep was always something that Naruto loved. It was comforting, refreshing, calm, and above all quiet. It was something that he looked forward to at the end of a tiresome day. In fact, there were some instances where Naruto nearly counted down the hours until he could finally fall asleep. Another humorous tidbit of information about Naruto was that he was _not_ a morning person. It wasn't actually his fault; instead he blamed it on how the sun decided to rise too early. Naruto was reminded of his preordained mindset when morning came.

The blonde's bed was placed so that his bedroom window was overlooking most of the beds surface. As a result Naruto had no way of shielding himself when the rays of the sun decided to crash down on the hidden Ninja village. He groaned and cursed and thrashed in hopes of persuading the large blinding ball of hot air to stay hidden for another three or five hours until he was ready to awake. It seemed that his pleading did not sway the sun as it blared into his room with renowned force and intensity.

Naruto groggily glared at his window from beneath his pillow. "You win this round," he blearily stated through chapped lips, "but the next one is _mine_…"

The boy knew that it was an empty threat, but the sun didn't need to know that. With a disgruntled sigh, Naruto sat up in bed, his legs crossed underneath him. He ran his hand over his face, wiping away sleepers from the corners of his eyes and excess drool from the corner of his mouth. Groaning at his senses as they began to flare into existence, noticing the texture of the bed sheets and smelling the clear morning air, Naruto stretched his arms high above his head and moaned in satisfaction as his bones popped out of and into place.

"Ah, now that's the stuff…" he moaned with a smile.

When he finished stretching Naruto hopped out of bed, pulled off his bucktoothed sleeping cap, and headed towards the bathroom. With a small smile he commenced in his morning rituals and soon left a steam filled bathroom with an even larger smile on his face. As he walked from his small bathroom and into his small kitchen his smile flinched, turned into a frown, morphed into smile, and final fell into a straight line.

Thoughts about what happened the night prior began to re-ignite his thought process. He knew that he had in fact summoned a spider last night, even in his morning stupor he could not deny that, but the question was: what do I do now? What _was_ he supposed to do? Was he supposed to scream for joy, stutter in fear, or…what? The young blond honestly didn't know what to do. He was in fact ecstatic about having something that Sasuke did not have, thus having an opportunity to hold something over the arrogant and antisocial Uchiha, but other deterrents made him think.

As his mind and face trickled through thoughts and emotions Naruto had retrieved a carton of milk from his refrigerator and a box of cereal from one of his cupboards. Before he knew it he was seated at his table with a bowl of cereal before him and a spoon in hand. Letting his body take initiative he riffled through his thoughts again. Part of what stalled Naruto in his jubilee about his new technique was that was the fact that spiders were, well, rather intimidating. It wasn't that he was 'afraid' of the spiders, but rather wary of them. He knew that spiders ate bugs and it was said that some large spiders at some birds or mice. If that was true than what would stop some of the larger spiders from making a meal out of him?

Then the thought of the small spider from the night before came to him. She was small, and judging by her voice, quite young. She also seemed very nice and kind, albeit clumsy and childish. She was actually quite amusing, in the short time that she was within the human realm. Though, while _she_ was small, or at least small compared to what the other spiders were most likely to be, and rather clumsy that did not mean that the other spiders were going to be as docile and shy. In fact the others could be vicious and temperamental.

Once again Naruto's mind changed gears as he thoughtfully chewed his cereal. How many spiders were there? What could he really summon? Spiders were a large species, or at least that is what Naruto thought, and he began to wonder what different kinds of spiders he could summon. He knew of a few species of spiders, like the tarantulas, the web making spiders, and the daddy longlegs but there had to more, like how there are hundreds of different types of dogs. The thought of going to ask Shino about spiders crossed Naruto's mind, but it was soon deflated. The reason? Shino would most likely take the question the wrong way seeing as how he is practically a living bug and how spiders eat bugs. Though Naruto had no close relationship to the Aburame, it was never good to 'insult' another.

With his breakfast now done, and luckily the milk had not been chunky, Naruto began debating how he should come about with new information about the small creatures. His first thought was to go to Jiji and ask him about spiders, but monkeys were _really_ different from spiders, so he was probably not the best choice. Then thoughts of Naruto's one-eyed Sensei came to mind. Though the man was 'supposed' to be his teacher, he really didn't do much. Lazing about and read his orange bound book, yes; teach much to his students he did not. He wasn't a bad man, per say, he was just…lazy and rather uncaring. These thoughts solidified Naruto's decision not to ask his Sensei. Plus Naruto feared that if he did show his Sensei his new technique that the one-eyed wonder would most likely restrict him from using it, or use some excuse to force Naruto to give the technique to Sasuke. Like he would allow that. With the two other men 'chopped' the only other man that could shed some light one the subject of spiders would be his favorite friend: Iruka. Iruka was a teacher, and thus knew tons of things. He would certainly know something about spiders.

Grinning, Naruto quickly deposited his cereal bowl and spoon into the kitchen's sink and placed the milk carton back into the fridge. Forgoing his forehead protector and his other Ninja tools, Naruto ran to his front door for his shoes. He had decided against his normal Ninja attire and instead wore a short-sleeved black shirt with a pair of orange pants. It was his normal 'civilian' clothing and he since he was on a three-day 'vacation' Naruto decided that doing close to nothing was probably a good thing.

He quickly opened his front door and bolted out, taking time to say good-bye to his apartment and promising that he would be back soon and locking the door. Though Naruto was one to train and practice diligently in order to become the best and thus Hokage, he had decided that while on vacation he would take it easy and enjoy his free time. Although he was not one for free time, he always had something to do where it be training or pranking, Naruto thought he should give it a try and find something not work oriented to consume his time. Ironically enough, with the discovery of the summoning scroll, Naruto now had something to fill his time. All he needed to do was talk to Iruka and the teacher would most likely give him the advice Naruto needed to fill his vacation.

With a wider smile than before, Naruto sped up as he ran through the streets of Konoha. His destination? The Ninja Academy.

XxXxX

"And that is how the Limestone Congruency Bill helped not only our own nation but Suna's as well," finished Iruka with a satisfied grin.

The man just loved to teach. He loved learning and thus spreading his newfound knowledge to generations that could benefit from the information more than he could. The thing was, Iruka was not that prominent on the battlefield like other Shinobi in Konoha's inventory. While he was efficient in most of the Shinobi art, illusions, Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu, he just never had the proverbial 'stuff' to make it to a higher rank. Another thing was that Iruka did not necessarily _want_ to reach that higher rank. He was a Ninja and a killing machine, yes, but for some reason Iruka was still able to hold onto his innocence, or at least to a degree that did not make him hunger for battle and power.

As a result Iruka dedicated himself to teaching future generations about the right and wrong in the Ninja world. He thought of it as his own little way of controlling the village, not in a hidden plan to take over the village and place himself at the head of it but rather as a way in insure the village's moral standing as well as influential standing. He thought that if his students could take just a couple of his lessons to heart than their village would not only stand for a hundred years but a hundred upon another hundred years upon that. Iruka dedicated himself to his village in ways that few did. While others fought on the frontier to insure the villages safety Iruka opted to fight on a front that was less dangerous but far more crucial.

Iruka looked up from the textbook on Elemental Country history and couldn't help but sigh in woe at the faces of the children in his class. All faces were either completely vacant of emotion, aka daydreaming, or asleep. It was true that history was one of the most boring subjects but the least the children could do was pay some sort of attention. If only there was a way to capture there attention so that they would not become so disinterested.

As of to answer the teacher's prayers, the windows that surrounded the eastern wall of the classroom exploded inward showering the lecture area with shards of glass. All the students, most under the age of ten, gasped at the sudden intrusion, some of the female students even went so far as to squeal in fright and hide under their desks. Iruka was stunned and instantly put on guard, kunai in hand. He quickly moved so that he was between his students and whatever had burst into classroom. Whatever had broken his classrooms window had rushed in, used a tuck-and-roll on the ground, threw in a cartwheel for effect, and front flipped before landing daintily on his feet with his arms spread high in above him. The intruder that had startled Iruka and half of his class half to death was none other than Uzumaki Naruto.

"Naruto what Hell in God's green earth do you think you are doing?" Iruka asked nearing the verge of a mental collapse.

In response Naruto held his hand up to the scarred teacher silencing the man. Once he was sure that Iruka would not interrupt any more, Naruto turned to the lecture style seats and bowed to them with the most elegance as he could muster. Once done he rose to his fullest and with a voice unlike his own he ask, "Would the Judges please reveal their scores?"

To answer his call, three completely random and mismatch individuals seemed to take out large wooden paddles from somewhere nearby. After the two boys and one girl sent silent messages to one another via nods and wiggling of their eyebrows one of the boys, the one from the left hand front corner, held up his paddle and said, "7," while flipping his paddle around to reveal a large sparkly seven.

Next was the girl in the center most row in the direct center. The most serious and monotone voice she pulled forth her paddle and said, "7," while turning to reveal a sparkly seven.

The last boy seated in the far right hand back corner dramatically yelled out, "6," and flipped his paddle around to reveal a large and sparkly six.

"20 points?" Naruto questioned while scratching the back of his head. "Well, that sucks. Anyway, Iruka I have something I have to ask you."

Before Naruto could elaborate any more he found himself with an arm around his neck and a rather loud and rather aggravated voice shrieking in his ear. It seemed while some of the students enjoyed his display the teacher did not, hence why the scarred man was currently trying to kill him via affixation. So what did Naruto do? Why, he thrashed and cursed and put on as much as a display as he could possibly muster, that's what.

The children of the class chanted words that were lost to both Iruka and Naruto, and some even went so far as to throw wadded up paper, pencils, and other assorted objects into the impromptu wresting ring. Girls squealed when Iruka was pushed to the ground by a haggard Naruto, and said blonde soon pinned the middle aged chunnin to the ground and pulled out a large black marker from somewhere on his person. It was an untold fact among the female students that Iruka was one of the most attractive chunnin in the academy and the shinobi force in general; so seeing their teacher man handled only seemed to invigorate the young girls' minds just as the fight helped stir the young boys' blood for battle.

With Naruto seated upon Iruka's chest with a thick black marker hovering just over the chuunin's cheek Naruto proclaimed, "Do you yield? If I were you I would because this marker here, well its one of the rare super unwashable markers. It took me a long while to find just this kind of marker and trust me when I say that it takes quite some time until it comes off."

"So?" Iruka goaded from his position on the floor.

"Well if you don't yield you'll be toting a rather _interesting_ mustache and other _creative_ words. _All. Over. Your. Face," _with each word Naruto brought the marker closer and closer to Iruka's unprotected cheek. "I don't think you would want '_I read Icha Icha'_ plastered on your face for three months now would you," Naruto taunted quietly, using one of the many secrets that he knew about the scarred man to his advantage.

Iruka's eyes widened. Though he was a fan of the orange bound book, he was not confident like Kakashi to publicly show his love. The only reason why Kakashi was rendered into pile of broken flesh by the female populous, and indeed they tried every couple of days, was because of his superior shinobi skills. Begrudedly, Iruka nodded his head as he cast his eyes to the side.

"I yield."

Now while the fight was not an outright shinobi battle when it came to rough housing Naruto always won out. Even against Iruka's higher knowledge and training the man could never 'tone' himself down just right to have the upper hand against the young teen; either he would 'tone' himself down too much, like in this instance, or he would 'tone' down too little and over compensate.

With a smile, Naruto got off his former teacher and capped the marker. With an offered hand, Naruto helped the older man to his feet, though the look on the man's face was one of much displeasure. The class had quieted down, somewhat, when Iruka had yielded; the boys were still murmuring about how cool it was that their teacher had just been bested, and the girls were gossiping about how Iruka had gone easy on the boy as to not harm him.

After dusting himself off, and making sure that Naruto had indeed placed the permanent marker back in his pocket, Iruka turned to address his class' interruption. "So what is _so_ important that you had to interrupt class? You know that _some_ people choose this as a time to learn…"

As a response, Naruto put up his hand for silence and went to address the class, "Ok, if this is a time for learning, what was Iruka teaching just now?"

As Naruto and Iruka sat waiting for someone to speak up in Iruka's defense, no one did; not after two minutes or waiting or five. Finally, after some false promises and insinuations made by Iruka to his students so that they would help back up the claim that they were in fact learning skills to benefit their Shinobi carrier, Iruka finally admitted defeat.

"Anyway," Naruto continued once he had wallowed in his victory, "I came because I was wondering if you knew anything about spiders."

Iruka shuddered at the word. "And why would you want to learn about…_spiders?"_

"Well," thinking quickly Naruto began to weave his false tale, "last night before I went to bed I saw that there was a spider making a web in the corner on my ceiling. I was wondering if it was a, well, bad spider and if I would need to pay for my apartment to be fumigated."

"Oh, well that is a common occurrence," Iruka reassured. "If you want to learn more about spiders then go to the library."

"The what-ary?"

"The _library_!" Iruka clarified as he rubbed his temples. "It's a place filled with books on every subject and genre."

"Gee, great," mumbled Naruto as he rolled his eyes.

"You may not believe me, but the library is the best source for information. You can learn things from Ninjutsu, to kenjutsu, and Genjutsu; you can even learn how to cook and garden at the library. The library is such a wealth of information that it is little doubt that most Shinobi spend their free time at the library refreshing themselves on subjects like new spying tactics, technique theory, or even learning a new skill so that a Shinobi can go undercover easier."

When Iruka finished his stirring speech he was met with the blank look of one Uzumaki Naruto and the drooling mouths of his entire class. With a deadpanned look, Iruka turned to Naruto. "Just go to the library and ask for a book on spiders. They _should_ help you."

Nodding blankly Naruto walked towards the broken windows and was soon gone. Sighing at his former student's actions the older man turned back to his class and saw that it was mostly in disarray: students gossiping, children sleeping, and an impromptu spitball fight happening in the fourth row. Iruka just shook his head in agony; the things that Naruto could create with just his presence.

XxXxX

Finding the library was not as difficult as Naruto had originally thought. In fact it was quite easy. All he did was follow the smart looking individuals and, presto, instant navigation to the library. When Naruto first saw the building, he realized that it was both extravagant as well as subtle. While the building was large, it was low and only a story tall. There were some statues that sat outside the front doors of the building, silent forms of intelligent individuals and Shinobi hold some sort of tool to achieve knowledge. Though the structure was low to the ground, like a large bunker, it was long and wide, spanning more than two hundred yards in all directions. Overall it was a perfect square made of white limestone.

Although Naruto was not one to appreciate architecture or such things, he could not help be marvel at the layout of the building. You could easily pass by the building and not know its true purpose, which the boy had done many times, but when you finally stopped and admired its structure you truly saw its majesty. Slowly he crept towards the buildings front door, and taking a deep breath entered the large, and slightly intimidating, structure.

Once inside, a blast of chilled air ruffled Naruto's hair. What struck Naruto as breath taking was not the air-conditioning, but the inner layout. Since the building was a 200x200 yard structure the interior was massive. Also, while the building was only one story tall, the library was built to sink _into_ the ground. In fact, each section of the library, nature, business, fiction, and Shinobi, was found on a separate tier of the lower levels. The design was similar to that of a descending roll of paper; the deeper it went the smaller the tier became. Another way of describing it would be the interior of a coiled shell, unwound. The tiers were structured so that a large section of the floor, decreasing in size as the tiers got smaller, was cut out, and thus one could look down from the ground level tier and see all the way down to the final tier, the Advanced Shinobi Technique tier. **(1)**

The top most tier, the ground level, was dedicated to civilian works: cooking, home decorating, and most fiction literature. One such reason for this was that civilians would be most likely against traveling in order to find the materials that they would need. The second tier was dedicated to outdoors literature: biology, botany, and animal documentaries. The third tier was psychology medical and other medicinal documentation, and the fourth tier began to enter the Shinobi arts.

Though Naruto was truly enthralled with the buildings inner layout, he currently had a mission to contend with. The only problem that Naruto perceived on his mission was the fear of biased individuals. Now, he had never been inside of the Konoha Public Library before, so he did not know the people that worked within the library, but he had dealt with enough people of the civilian and Shinobi populous to understand that some would do what they could to hinder his life. Since he was standing near the railing that protected library-goers from falling into the deeper levels of the library, Naruto assessed his surroundings.

It took him some time to locate the reception desk and the help desk. Once he had, Naruto made his way towards it. One thing that Naruto knew about libraries was that it was extremely difficult to locate books and materials. Another thing was that Naruto had never been within the library before so he was doubly lost in his would be search for knowledge.

As Naruto walked up to the help desk he noticed an old portly woman sitting behind the wooden desk. Her hair was a faded chestnut with subtle streaks of sliver running here and there, a testament to her age it would seem. She wore small crescent spectacles that had slipped near the end of her nose. The woman's face, which at one point had most likely been sleek and smooth, was crinkled with wrinkles in a way that suggested that the woman was a fan of smiling. Lastly the old woman's eyes seemed to have never dimmed; they sparkled and twinkled with kindness and unfathomable knowledge.

Cautiously, Naruto approached the desk. The old woman behind it was currently lost within the pages of an old leather bound novel, her eyes rocketing across the page at speeds Naruto never knew existed. She had yet to look up when Naruto came to stop in front of her desk, and judging by how intent she was with her book there was little hope that she would 'come to' anytime soon. So taking a chance, Naruto coughed into his hand in hopes of alerting the elder woman. It worked. With a start she looked up and smiled brightly, showing off bright teeth. It was a marvel to Naruto that a woman so old could still have so many teeth.

"What can I help you with deary?" she asked with a warm voice.

Naruto scratched the back of his head abashedly, "I was wondering if you could help me find something?"

The woman's eyes twinkled again. "That all depends on what you are looking for."

"Well…it might sound weird, but I was wondering if you could help me find a book related to spiders…"

The old woman began to scrutinize the young man with her sparkling eyes. To Naruto they seemed to look not just at him, but through him. Like she was not only looking at him but as if she was look into his past, his present, and his would be future. Only one other person could bring this feeling to the young blonde and that person was the elder Hokage. Maybe it had something to do with intellect, like the more intelligent a person was, the more they were able to unravel a person's character and see the derivatives of their lives.

Her eyes continued to gaze into him and for a moment Naruto thought that the old lady would turn him away. Finally her eyes lit up like never before. "Well, you must be quite busy today so let's get you some books."

With that, the old lady began to feverously type on the machine before her. Naruto was slightly taken aback. Though he was slightly used to receiving some kindness this woman's enthusiasm was something that he was unfamiliar with. It was not that he was not thankful of it, far from it in fact, but the way she beamed at him and spoke to him in a tone like that of a close family member brought forth a strange sensation to the blonde.

After some more clicks on her machine and some muttering, the woman pushed back her chair and stood up. She was not overly tall and it seemed that her age had both reduced her height as well as created a hunch to her back. What surprised Naruto, though, was the fact that when she began her trek to find the needed book, her speed was something that an old woman should not possess. She rocketed towards the stairs that led down towards the second tier with Naruto stumbling after her.

"Hey," he shouted after her as she began to hop down the stairs, "shouldn't we, like, take the elevator or something?"

"Why would that be?" she cackled back. "Just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm crippled." And with that last statement the old woman jumped the last five steps and took off towards the right.

Naruto just gawked at her resilience and nearly fell flat on his face because of it. When he recovered he spotted the woman as she darted behind a row of shelves, and he ran after her, fearing that if he lost her now he would never find her again in this labyrinth of books. As he entered the section that she had just entered he heard the clacking of her shoes turn the corner yet again.

For the next five or so minutes Naruto embarked on a wild goose chase. The old woman skirted this way and that as she prowled through the shelves, looking for the book in question. Just as Naruto thought he had lost the old woman, he found her standing in front of a stack of books, muttering to herself. She shifted one book after another for almost two minutes until she cackled loudly and pulled out a hard covered from the bottom of the pile. Turning gallantly to the young blonde, the old woman smiled broadly.

"I think this will help you, Naruto-kun!" she grinned and handed the book to the boy.

_Spiders of the World_ by Rod and Ken Preston-Mafham was the title of the book that the woman had handed him. Compared to other information literature that Naruto had seen this book was quite small, maybe a total of two hundred pages at most. On the cover was a picture of a beautiful flower, but hidden within the flower was a disguised spider. Its color matched that of the flowers so perfectly that at first glance it would seem that the spider was not even there.

Besides the picture on the cover of the book, Naruto noticed something else. He had noticed the old woman had known his name even though he had yet to tell her. That disturbed Naruto. He knew that he was a rather 'infamous' person within the walls of Konoha, and he knew that most everyone knew his name. In fact, Konoha was actually a rather small 'city'. So small in fact that the Shinobi in the populous were known by the civilians either by name or by glance. This was because 1/3 of the populous were enrolled as Shinobi, while the other 2/3s were merchants or artisans. That, coupled with how the rumor mill was constructed, made knowledge about others, other than clan secrets or village secrets, easy to find. One such 'common' knowledge was the crush that one Hyuga Hinata had on one Uzumaki Naruto. Quite literally _everyone_ in Konoha knew about the young girls feelings but the target in question. It was both humorous and shameful. Humorous that Naruto did not know that he had one of the most influential daughters in love with him, and shameful that he in fact did not know. It was almost as plain as the nose on the young blonde's face, but the boy was dense so some lenience was given to him.

So during the walk back to the stairs Naruto unusually quite. Though the woman had helped him, he still kept his guard up. There had been times in the past when Naruto had let down his guard around an individual only to be badly hurt afterwards. This woman was no exception.

"I have read almost all the books in this library," the old woman started, shaking Naruto from his own inner thoughts. "I have learned with the greatest philosophers, I have solved mysteries with the best detectives, I have laughed with wonderful comedians, and I have wept with good couples. I have crossed seas, hiked mountains, and trekked deserts. I have studied animals, plants, humans, and the future. I have read about fish, mammals, birds, and insects.

"And one thing I have learned about spiders is this: they get a bad rap for just existing. They have eight eyes, eight legs, and fed in the most peculiar way. Some tend to eat their mate, while others make communities and live with their mates like a normal human couple** (2)**. Most common humans fear spiders because of these facts; because spiders are so different from themselves. But it is quite the opposite. Spiders do humanity a priceless favor. They capture diseased mosquitoes and flies in their webs. They also eat other nuisances and help keep our homes clean."

The woman then looked at Naruto's slightly agape mouth from the corner of her eye. "If only people would take the time to learn about their fears and learn that what they fear is something to be liked. Spiders aren't all bad, the dark is only dark if you want it to be, and small places can actually save your life. If only people would over look their own stupidity and take the time to learn something about something. Oh well…"

While Naruto was one to look at things at only face value, he was never one to understand the 'think underneath the underneath', but he understood the woman's words. He knew what she was implying. He said nothing, fearing that if he did the woman would find a reason to change her mind. Instead, Naruto smiled kindly at the woman and silently said "Thank you." They walked in silence as they scaled the stairs back onto the first tier. The woman led him back to her desk and soon she was seated once again, her book quickly back in place in front of her face.

Naruto did not know what to do now. He had the book and that was all he needed, but he knew that he could not just walk out of the building without going through some kind of procedure. Also, seeing that the old woman was now engrossed with her book once again, he feared disturbing her. She had been rather kind to the blonde, an uncommon occurrence to the him, and he feared that if he disturbed her then she would instantly change her opinion of him. That was something that he did not want.

As if sensing the boy's inner turmoil, the woman peered over her book and locked onto the boy's eyes. Again Naruto was struck as to just how clear and piercing the woman's eyes were. If he did not know her body structure and had just glimpsed her eyes, he would have honestly thought that this woman was in her early twenties and not her eighties. Without looking away, she snapped her hand out and within it closed fingers was a small card. It was a plain white card with no other decoration save for a bar code and some numbers.

"You're going to need this if you want to take that book out of the library." She stated matter-of-factly. At his rather confused look she elaborated, "You have a library account here. Once you become a Genin the village automatically enters you into the library database and you then have access to most of the literature in the library."

She handed him the card without saying another word. Just as his two fingers gripped the card, the old woman disappeared behind her book once again. He stared from the card to the woman and back to the card again. Though he was not one for books the thought of having someone like her within the library almost made checking out books and achieving knowledge sound exciting.

Smiling at the woman, though she seemed to not see it, Naruto bowed to her. "Thank you, oba-san." With that one rare show of respect Naruto ran to the front desk to check out his new book. The woman at the help desk watched him go, a small smile on her face.

She had begun to wonder when that boy was going to stop by the library. Sarutobi had instructed her to look after the boy, as well as report what he had checked out, once he found the wonders of the library. The reason she was chosen was that she was both one of the best information gatherers when she had been in her prime and the only person that knew the library the best. While Sarutobi was known as the 'Professor' for his knowledge on Shinobi techniques, Kokoroe was the 'Librarian' for all knowledge. Period.

Now the reason why the elder Hokage had instructed Kokoroe to look after the young blonde was so that the Hokage had an idea of what the blonde was studying. While the older man trusted the young Jinchuriki with his life, there was still a chance that the cruelty of the village's narrow-minded beliefs had warped the child's mind into that of a vengeful spirit. With Kokoroe having literally read every book in the library at least once, she could easily recall the content of one book just by taking a glimpse of its cover. It was all thanks to her photographic memory.

Smiling to herself, Kokoroe slipped back into her book. Before she lost herself she quickly made a mental note to report to Hokage about the young Uzumaki's book selection.

XxXxX

Now this was a problem. Due to Naruto's predictable class skipping and in class napping he had limited knowledge to advanced kanji. Normally that would not be a problem, but when he tried to read his book once he had left the library he found that the advanced words were nearly impossible for him to read. He even went so far as to tip the book left, right, and upside down in hopes of deciphering the kanji. It was to no avail.

As such Naruto stopped in the middle of the street, scowling and fuming over the difficult words. At the time, skipping class and catching up on lost sleep was a good idea, though now it was not. This book held information that was dire to his understanding of the creatures he now had some control over. With his current inability to read it, he was now at a major disadvantage.

He growled to himself and stomped his foot amongst the people of the shopping district. He wanted to shout out that it wasn't his fault that he couldn't read these advanced kanji, but he knew that that would be lying. While his teachers were lethargic when it came to his education, he himself was not too adamant or proactive when it came to learning or studying. Yes, he did study on his own and practice using unconventional ways, ways that others would either roll their eyes at or gawk at, but it was not as thorough as Sakura's study sessions or Kiba's family regimen.

Naruto was not sad with how he trained himself. In fact he was proud of himself. He was able to things that other people could do with less. Kiba and Sakura had family help and higher intelligence, yet Naruto was able to do the same things, relatively, as both Kiba and Sakura with much less help and, though he hated to admit it, intelligence. Naruto was never one to discuss his short comings when it came to his intellect but he knew that he was not the sharpest tool in the shed. Part of him wondered why this was. He was just like any other child in his class, so why was it that he could not process information like they could?

With a sigh, Naruto placed those thoughts to the back of his head. When ever he thought of his short comings, though he was proud of the person he was, he always felt as if there was some kind of dark cloud hanging over him. Sighing once again, Naruto tucked his new book under his arm and headed towards Ickiraku's Ramen Bar. He was in need of some tasty and unhealthy food. Also he wished to talk to Teuchi. The man was on of the few people that Naruto listened to when it came to advice.

With that thought in mind Naruto headed towards his second home. Currently he was meandering through the shopping district of, taking nothing in as he walked. He was used to letting his body to over and just wander as his mind was else where. Heck that was how he usually got from point 'A' to point 'B' most of the time; just walking and letting his mind formulate some kind of prank, all the while not watching where he was going. It was his thing.

Unfortunately due to Naruto's lack of focus he bumped into an unsuspecting bystander. With an '_oof'_ Naruto landed on his rear, his book falling onto his lap in the process. His eyes darted to the person that he had current collided with and his mouth was posed in an angry shout. Though it seemed to be his fault to the collision, he still hated it when he ran into people or when others collided with him. With the intent on cursing out the person that had impended his journey Naruto's voice die within his throat.

The individual that stood before him was none other than Hyuga Hinata, resident odd and creepy girl of Naruto's academy graduation class. Her eyes were slightly widened in seeing that it was Naruto that she was unknowingly bumped into. She seemed to be dressed for a day out; pink ankle wrapped sandals and a blue and pink dress were most unlike her normal wear. The dress had pink sleeves that ended at her wrists and remand pink until it came to the top of her chest. From her chest down, it was a light navy blue and near the lip of the dress had two large pink swirling flowers. In her hands, clutched to her breast, was a small cardboard box with an insignia of a local bakery inscribed on the side.

Naruto had never seen Hinata wear such on outfit. Normally she wore her nearly patented coat and navy blue pants. Now she was something that caused him to take a second look. Because of the new colors, Naruto realized that her eyes were not grey or pure white as he had originally speculated, but rather an extremely light purple, shade of purple that he could not name. The next thing that Naruto noticed was that her hair was not black, but it was a deep navy blue, almost the same shade as the navy on her dress. Now Naruto was never one to be tongued tied, not in the least, but seeing the transformation that was hidden within Hyuga Hinata's coat and gloomy demeanor caused Naruto's tongue to be securely wrapped into a butterfly knot. Before him no longer stood a girl that he once thought was strange and dark and overly creepy. Instead she was actually quite stunning. Maybe stunning was not the term that Naruto should use; maybe astonishing or astounding or eye-opening or any other type of phrase that would relay the idea of shock when it came to apprising another persons figure and appearance.

Needless to say, this breathtaking woman before Naruto made the boy question the beauty of Haruno Sakura.

The flabbergasted blond was not the only one that was mystified by the other sex's appearance. With the black short-sleeved shirt and orange pants, Naruto appeared in a way that Hinata was not used to. The black of his shirt accented his hair in such a way that Hinata had to remind herself to continue to breath. It also did not help that the shirt was a size too small and helped the gun shy girl to notice his slightly muscled chest. It was not that the blonde was overly muscled, but rather that he did muscle training. The lack of orange was also a highlight to Naruto's choice of dress. Though Hinata did not hate the blonde's normal wear, it was not a lie to say that the bright colors hurt her sensitive eyes to an extent. Overall the boy's current appearance had the same affect on Hinata as Hinata's appearance had on Naruto. She only wished that he would dress similarly in the future.

It was true, almost disturbingly so, that she was a rather _large _fan of Uzumaki Naruto; so much so that she knew almost every piece of clothing in the blonde's closet just by watching his dressing patterns **(3)**. She did not mean to follow the blonde near religiously and hide as she watched him train or work. It was just that the way that he acted, regardless of what others thought, and persevered, even against clearly sabotaged situations. Hinata knew that his life was not perfect and that knowledge both connected her emotionally to the blonde as well as caused the young woman a sense of self-shame. The reason for such shame was that she had done nothing to help the blonde that she had fallen for. She had the backing of one of the most financially stable and influential families of the whole village but she could not get over her own insecurity to help the boy.

Unlike popular belief, Hinata's home life was not as harsh as it was normally depicted; an intervention of Sarutobi had helped not only in Hinata and the younger generation's treatment but the clan as a whole in seeing their 'unconventionally cruel' practices. Unfortunately the inner unwritten beliefs of the older generation regarding the heir to the clan were still enforced rather harshly. It also did not help that Hinata demeanor was quite the opposite of most, if not all, the main branch members. With those two variables coupled together, Hinata's kind and loving nature and the clans ruthless sense of superiority, Hinata was ransacked with ideas of suppression when she only want to uplift others, and the lessons on bodily harm only seemed to wound Hinata more than her opponent.

Her father, only recently, was starting to 'warm' to her, and had lightened up on both her training as well as his verbal treatment of his first daughter. He had been stuck within the ideas of the past, training her into the ground using harsh word and harsher treatments. It was also help to Hiashi becoming remarried. With a mental growl to herself, Hinata forced herself away from thoughts of that _woman._ Though Hinata understood the reasoning behind the remarriage, feelings of resentment and thoughts of how this new 'mother' was overshadowing the person that was her _true_ mother still plagued Hinata. Luckily, she was saved from her mind when Naruto's voice touched her.

"Oh, hey there Hinata-chan **(4)**," his voice was bashful, yet Hinata could hear the awe in it, "I didn't see you there. Sorry."

Now Hinata was more flabbergasted than she was before. Naruto rarely ever said sorry about anything, not even when he had tarred-and-feather Iruka with chocolate and breakfast cereal. Now he was apologizing for just bumping into her. And it was he that fell over and was 'injured'.

"I-It's ok-kay, N-Narut-to-k-kun," was her quiet reply. She would have hid behind her fingers as she normally did but the box of her favorite sweets, cinnamon rolls, had her hands preoccupied.

When Naruto heard her stutter he grinned widely and shot to his feet. This sudden motion in turn brought a sudden _'eep'_ from the young girl's lips. Seeing her surprise, and understanding her shy and timid nature, Naruto blushed bashfully and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Once that was said, an uncomfortable silence engulfed the two teens. One was silent because her crush was acting more kindly to her than he had ever acted before, and the other was quiet because he was unused to interacting with individuals of the opposite sex. Yet the two had one thing in common; they were both looking for something to end the silence. Now the thing was something that the two could easily discuss and relate to; it had to be something that suited the two, something like a question or a statement about something to two held in common.

Suddenly Hinata noticed the book that Naruto held in his hand. It was strange to have Naruto clutching a book, and it was even stranger to have Naruto clutch one so adamantly. When she looked closer she saw that it was a hardcover book that was wrapped in the same kind of plastic protective covering as some books found in the public library. Now why would Naruto be within the public library? Maybe the unknown book could be a focus for a new ice-breaking conversation?

While Hinata was noticing the book, Naruto was also finding something that could be labeled as 'conversation worthy material'. The small cardboard box that the young Hyuga was carrying was emitting an intoxicating aroma. Naruto's pallet was a rather narrow one: ramen, milk, ramen, breakfast cereal, ramen, some sweets (when he could afford them), and ramen. The box that Hinata held, though, was enticing Naruto so much that he was tempted to see if she was willing to share with him. Well maybe not share, that would be rude, but maybe she would at least tell him what was hidden inside the cardboard.

"Um/Ano?"

Like usual, when two individuals finally found something to talk about they began to talk at the same time, thus interrupting each other. The two shared on equally red face as they stared down each other. They were about to try again, and at the same time no less, but Naruto's quick thinking stopped himself from looking anymore like a fool. With an afford hand, like how a gentlemen would ask a fair maiden for a dance, Naruto singled Hinata to go first.

With a grateful and shy smile Hinata summed up her courage. "Ano, i-is that a l-library book in your h-hands?"

Naruto blinked several times before looking down to his library book. When he looked back at Hinata he smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head as he usually did. "Ha ha, yeah. I came along a new technique the other day and I thought that I should get some information on it." The blonde chuckled again this time in embarrassment, "So I went to the library to get this book. The bad thing is I can't really….you know…read it." As he finished his voice became small, quiet, and ashamed.

"Ano…" Hinata blushed at Naruto's dilemma. She knew just as well as anyone how Naruto did not like to talk about his lack of education. So to have Naruto actually admit that he was having difficulty reading was something that Naruto did not normally do. "Ano…d-do you need s-some h-h-help?"

Naruto's eyebrow shot up into his hair line and his eyes widened with both surprise and giddy anticipation. He was surprised because someone was actually willing to help him who wasn't Iruka or the elder Hokage. He was equally giddy for the same reason. Someone was actually willing to associate with him, someone who was within his own age group.

Before the blonde could answer, his stomach groaned in protest. It would appear that lunch time was at the ready or soon. Such was Naruto's stomach; it was so accurate that one could set their watch to it. Once Naruto came over his embarrassed blush, and once Hinata silenced her minute giggle, Naruto purposed an idea.

"Hey, why don't we head to Ichiraku's Ramen Bar?" Hinata quirked an eyebrow and her pinked cheeks reddened that much more at the request. Quickly Naruto elaborated, "At Ichiraku's we could both have lunch and you could help me with my book," to sweeten the deal Naruto added, "I'll buy."

While Hinata was not against paying for her own meal, it just seemed that a good day just exponentially became one of the best days of her life. Since she too was on a mini vacation, she had decided to go on a relaxing shopping trip and maybe purchase some of her favorite cinnamon rolls. Yet low and behold her crush all but literally fell into her lap and now they were heading out for lunch. _Together!_ It was as if her dreams had been answered. Now they were heading towards Ichiraku's Ramen Bar in a comfortable silence.

As they walked, Hinata began to contemplate how she could contribute to this pseudo-date. While she was all for Naruto taking over and making this a 'date', though he most likely did not know it was being interrupted as such, she felt that if she were to make this occurrence memorable for both of them she would have to add something that tickled her crush. From the corner of her eye she noticed that Naruto was both eye the box of cinnamon rolls that she held as well as sending her fleeting glances. While she knew every well that if she lingered on the idea that her crush was actually _checking her out_ would most likely make her mind and shut down. On the other hand she noticed how he was focusing on her box of cinnamon rolls; maybe dessert would help this 'date' along.

She smiled to herself, taking one hand from the bottom of her precious sweets and hid her smile behind her hand like any proper lady would.

Naruto was astonished. He couldn't stop himself from stealing glances at the young woman beside him. He was equally surprised that he kept referring to the girl that he was once wary to talk to as a woman. But he had to admit that she was like none of the other girls in his past classes. Naruto was not one to stare at a woman's body. Sure he was an adolescent boy who was interested in the opposite sex, but he prided himself in not acting like Kiba or like Shikamaru. It was just that Hinata's 'new' form caused him to loose his 'composure'.

The young blonde noticed how the nape of her neck and collar bone were smooth and sleek. He noticed how her hair framed her face in such a way that nothing could be hidden, that nothing _should_ be hidden. He noticed how her figure was not absurdly proportioned and contained just enough curve and fullness to appear healthy and full of life, not like how Sakura had a rather plump rear yet no upper plumpness. He noticed how the slight dusting of pink on her cheeks actually made her flawless face even more appealing. He averted both his eyes as well as his reddening face. She was by _far_ no Sakura. He wanted to remind himself that he was solely for the young pinkette, but the physical aspect of Hinata and the kind (if only few) memories of Hinata were quickly eclipsing the memories of Sakura.

It was true that Naruto was obsessed with Haruno Sakura (she was smart, long haired, and gorgeous), but he had to admit her 'cruel' nature could wear even the most saintly of men nerves down to nothing. Naruto had to catch himself from actually proposing a rebuttal, a harsh one at that, for the more recent mean things she was saying about him. With each passing day, and insult, it was slowly becoming more and more difficult with each low blow. He still couldn't understand how she could say such mean things to him even though all he did was kind and thoughtful things to the pink-haired girl.

Naruto quickly silenced his thoughts. Thinking too much always sent Naruto's mind into a tailspin towards early shut down. It wasn't his fault, it was just that trying to comprehend all of the alleged variables and outcomes to why or why not something did something always sent Naruto into an early comatosed nap. It was either a comatosed nap or several hours of blubbering foolhardy speech, both of which usually ended badly for the blonde. So to remedy this, Naruto ceased to think. He allowed his mind to wonder much like how he usually did when he trekked from one point to another. The only thing that Naruto could not control was his fleeting glances that he stole towards Hinata.

It was not long after Naruto went on autopilot that Hinata and he arrived at Ichiraku's Ramen Bar. As per usual the stand was rather empty, only having a total of forty to fifty customers a day. While this may sound like quite a lot of customers compared to other restaurants that served a wide variety of food, and which usually serve about fifty to one hundred _per rush hour_, it was nothing more than pocket change. The only reason why Ichiraku's Ramen Bar was still in business and thriving was because of their diehard customers, like one Uzumaki Naruto, as well as the cost of their product. Their ramen came in three sizes, small, medium, and large, but the peculiar thing about these three sizes was the fact that the medium bowl could easily feed a 250 pound man and keep him filled for an entire day. since the portions were so large the prices were tuned accordingly; having few customers, and a high priced item, an item who's ingredients were rather cheap, allowed Ichiraku's Ramen Bar to prosper and stay above water rather easily.

Even though it was near the end of lunch there were no other customers within the shop. This did not mean that the stand had sold nothing; Ichiraku's Ramen Bar delivered their product to any customer within the village. That was Ayame's main job, deliverer. While she did help her father with cooking and the maintenance of the stand, Ayame's official job was to deliver preorder dishes to their purchasers.

When Hinata and Naruto entered they found the stands proprietor and head cook sitting behind the stands counter reading the village's local newspaper. It seemed that the noon time rush had not been too strenuous. He face was one of boredom as he leaned on his elbow and scowled into the newspaper; it appeared that something written inside the paper did not agree with him. When the older man heard the overhead curtain flap as Hinata and Naruto entered he looked up and beamed. Before him stood his number one customer as well as the woman that had one of the largest crushes on him.

"Naruto, my boy," Teuchi's gravely voice rang out, "I was wondering if you would ever show up."

The blonde blushed and scratched the back of his head as he and his companion took their seats at the bars center counter. "Yeah, well I had to pick something up at the library, so I was bound to be a little late."

Teuchi quirked an eyebrow at the information that Naruto had visited the library and quirked the second eyebrow at the company that was shadowing the blonde. The older man was extremely tempted to comment on the two of them, to say something about how they looked like they were on a date, but years of experience and knowledge reminded the older man that if he were to comment on how the two looked would cause Naruto to blatantly deny the fact and thus hurt the girl. So the older man kept his mouth securely shut.

"So what can I do you two for?"

Naruto smiled and signaled Hinata to go first. She stuttered and blushed at Naruto's chivalrous nature but managed to order a small miso ramen nonetheless. Naruto quickly order two large chicken ramen, and watched Teuchi nod and disappear into the kitchen.

An uncomfortable silence consumed the two teens and again they fought to find a conversation starter. Hinata's keen eyes flittered around the small stand in search for something to talk about. While she had enough confidence to now stand within the presence of her crush, her steam to her train was quickly beginning to dwindle. She needed something to refill her boilers so she could hopefully make it through their pseudo-date without making an entire fool of herself.

That was when she spotted her 'fresh pot of coffee'. Between the two of them lay Naruto's library book. When she was finally able to see the cover she had to stifle a gasp. The cover held a picture rather large and intimidating spider. Spiders were creepy and crawly and just plain scary looking. Like any normal and sane person she was afraid of them. Now this begged the question as to why Naruto had a book solely on spiders. He had said that the book was to help with a technique that he had learned, but what could it possibly be.

"Ano…" her tiny voice quickly got the blonde's attention. "I-Is there s-s-something you n-need help w-with in your b-b-book?"

Naruto looked puzzled for a brief second before a smile exploded upon his face. Within seconds he had the book opened to its preface and pointed to some kanji. Moments later Hinata began to help Naruto along one baby step at a time. She had to say, the book he had chosen, or had been chosen for him, was full of high browed scientific terms and knowledge but at the same time was presented in a way that helped a novice understand it without trouble. While she helped him along she also learned quite a bit about the things that caused her to squeal in terror.

They learned that spiders preformed a rather needed service. While Hinata knew that spiders devoured many pests such as mosquitoes and flies, she did not know just how many. She also learned that very, very few spiders were actually harmful to man. In fact her fear based thoughts of how a spider would jump towards and latch onto her face and try to devour her. This book had helped place those thoughts to rest. What Hinata and Naruto also learned were many different genomes of spiders, and how each genome had a select characteristic that made that genome special.

Before long their food came, but it did not hinder their reading lessons. In fact, it seemed that the food only made their lessons that more fun and that much more enjoyable. Hinata giggled and laughed as Naruto talked with a full mouth. Naruto laughed as Hinata blushed when they reach the procreation chapter. All in all, the decision to partake in lunch while studying had helped both the two teens overcome their slight bout of stage fright. Both Hinata and Naruto had been subconsciously timid towards each other. One did not know the other too well, and the other was too shy and intimidated. It was the lunch and the food that helped Naruto learn a little about Hinata, and the lunch helped Hinata ease into a comfortable and friendly atmosphere.

Before long the two had finished their ramen. Naruto's face fell. He could easily continue eating more and more ramen, but he was well aware that not everyone had the same bottomless pit for a stomach as he had. Also, the box of sweet smelling baked goods was tickling Naruto's nose and teasing his stomach. Hinata noticed this, and in hopes to prolong their time together meekly offered to share her treats with her crush. When she saw the boy's eyes pop out of his head and as he wrapped her up in a bone crushing hug, she knew she had made the right decision.

It took no time at all for the two to consume the half dozen cinnamon rolls. For Naruto, he learned that Hinata loved cinnamon rolls just much as he loved ramen. The only difference was that she enjoyed her guilty pleasure slowly. As he watched, Naruto could barely comprehend what he was seeing.

Her tongue slithered out of her pink silky maw to the curves of the rolls top edge. It repeated the action several times, making three total rotations before the elegant appendage disappeared back into her warm and moist home, all the while carrying a dollop of sugary topping back with it. With a soft, subtle moan of pleasure escaping her throat, Hinata moved forward to tease the bottom most part of the roll where all of the cinnamon from the inner roll collected. She took some time savoring the herb, swirling her pink glistening tongue in tune to the roll's spiral, before she recalled her tongue back into her mouth. In and out, in and out went her tongue as she slowly and meticulously whittled away the sweet and savoring ingredients of the defenseless roll's outer layer. With one last flick and twist of her keen tongue Hinata moaned out right. Half lidded eyes gazed upon her victim with mild amusement. She knew she had captured her sweet and delicious foe, and she knew he had no where to go. With the utmost care, she slowly began to nibble the outermost ring of the roll. She nibbled, she licked, and she slowly swallowed. It was not long before the roll was nothing more than white residue glossing her lips and speckling her slim fingers. A smirk graced her frosting covered lips as the young Hyuga gazed down at her 'soiled' fingers. Her tongue once again darted out from her wet maw and wasted no time as it lapped up the excess frosting from her finger tips. When she finally saw that her fingers were clean of frosting, Hinata wetted her lips with her sleek tongue, taking the white sugar topping from her pink, supple lips and taking down her lustrous and smooth throat. To end her meal, a smile much like something Naruto had never seen before creased the lips of the young maiden, and for a time Naruto saw life in a way that made him question is own existence.

Naruto forgot that his jaw was attached to his face, and quickly bent down to retrieve it. Never in his life had he seen something so beautiful, naughty, angelic, indescribable, and down right amazing. She had taking eating a favorite food to a level that Naruto did not believe existed. Mentally he bowed to her finesse, her grace, and her out right public display of affection for that one article of edible concoction. He tore his eyes away from her and sent a teary eyed praise to heaven. He had finally found someone who loved something as much as he did. The only other person that had fit this kind of dedication was Choji, but that boy was an amateur compared to this master.

They had completed their meal in only an hour and a half. Hinata, and Naruto, had _thoroughly_ enjoyed herself/himself during the whole event. But in seeing that their time was at an end, Hinata desperately tied to find something that could be used to prolong their time together. She had just been able to muster enough courage to actually stay within this breathing area for more than an hour, now she _wanted_ more. She wondered what she could use to prolong their 'date', and soon the answer to her problem all but literally slapped her in the face.

She gazed at her 'date' one last time before she willed her courage to allow her to announce that she would need to get home soon. Just as she was about to interrupt Naruto's conversation with Teuchi, she took notice of his book one last time. He had said that he had gone to the library to retrieve a book that could help him with a Shinobi Technique. The question was: what kind of technique would warrant knowledge on spiders?

"Ano…N-Naruto-k-kun?"

"Hmm?" Naruto turned away from Teuchi and sent his smiling face in Hinata's blushing direction.

"Wh-wh-why do y-y-you need t-t-to underst-stand sp-spiders?"

Naruto's smile wilted only a little at the question. He had deliberately left out what the technique was so he would be able to surprise his opponents, and everyone else, when the right time came. He had even left that information out when he was talking to his 'brother'. But as he gazed at Hinata's questioning eyes and subtle smile, he began to contemplate.

Would it be so bad if he let Hinata in on his secret? As the blonde search his memories for instances that involved Hinata, he could not come up with one instance that made him question her kindness and integrity. Sure she was quiet, gloomy, and dark, but never had she done anything that hurt others. Heck, everything she did was to help others, especially Naruto. In fact, as Naruto looked into his memories, everything she had ever done towards him had been nice. She had never once laughed at his mess ups or mistakes unlike the others. On several instances she had even tried to defend him, but it seemed that her meek and shy nature had overshadowed her concern. As he thought about it more, the more he solidified the idea of showing her his new secret.

If he did tell her, what would she do? Unfortunately, Naruto did not know Hinata as well as he knew Sakura or Kiba. He did not know Hinata's hopes, fears, or ideals. As such, Naruto did not know how she would take the display of the technique. Maybe she would scream and abandon him once she knew the 'grotesqueness' of his new skill. Maybe she would faint, her common medical condition, and then, once she awoke, she would scream, ex cetera. More and more thoughts and possibilities entered and left his head, and all ended the same: Hinata screaming and never wishing to see him again. But something told Naruto so would do otherwise. Something inside Naruto, deep, deep inside, told Naruto she would accept this small display of insanity and grossness.

"Do you trust me?"

Hinata's small smile shrunk until it was just a ghost of itself. She had never heard Naruto like this, his voice so raw and uncovered. He sounded as if he was truly scared about have he was saying. As if he was baring his soul and self to her. When she focused on his eyes she found something she did not normally see. Normally the boy's eyes would hold mirth, mischief, and innocence. Now she saw fear, but not the normal fear. It was the same look that she had seen when she had found Hanabi, her sister, after she had gone missing during a shopping trip. It was the look of abandonment, as if Naruto feared that he would be abandoned by Hinata if things did not go right, or if she was not strong enough.

To ease his fear, Hinata placed her hand over his. The act started him so much that he forgot to tear his hand away. With a smile she gave his hand a slight squeeze and whispered, "I w-w-would tr-trust you w-with my life…"

Naruto eyes widened, his smile deepened, and his heart raced. As quick as a flash, Naruto deposited the needed cash upon the stands countertop, gripped Hinata's hand, and soon dashed out of the shop with a squeaking and stunned Hyuga behind him. Hinata was surprised by her crushes speed. They were all but flying through the village, the sights were nothing more than blurs and the sounds were reduced to gargled white noise. The blonde wasted no time in leaving the congested and crowded city with his companion in tow. At one point in their journey Naruto had let go of Hinata's petite hand, but just as Hinata began to frown in loss Naruto recaptured her hand. This time though he interlaced his fingers with hers for a more secure hold. Even as they left the village, and even as Hinata's blush threatened to consume her face, the young Hyuga managed to tighten her own grip on Naruto's hand and fingers.

With the blurred and slurred images and sounds of training grounds assaulting Hinata's senses as her crush and she rushed along she could not help wondering why the urgency, secrecy, and eagerness of Naruto's actions. She knew individuals that held their techniques close to their vests, her sensei Kurenai was one such individual, so part of the young pale Hyuga was not surprised by Naruto's actions. The thing that puzzled her was that Naruto was never one to hide anything about himself, especially when it came to Shinobi techniques. When the blonde had created and perfected his 'dreaded' **Ninja Centerfold** he had instantly shown it off in class. So, to have Naruto conceal a technique was an uncommon ideal. She had even heard rumors about how Naruto flashed about his newest technique, **Shadow Doppelgangers**, to make corporeal copies of himself to assist in missions and other such work.

While Hinata contemplate her infatuation's actions, Naruto was eagerly looking for a isolated location to show case his new talent. While he trusted Hinata, 'reluctantly', he did _not_ trust other prying eyes. Recently Sasuke had been sending him strange and disturbing looks ever since their team had completed the mission with Tazuna the bridge builder. The Uchiha kept on sending him heated stares during training exercises, like he was trying to strip the Uzumaki of not only his clothes, a thought that brought shivers of disgust and revulsion, but also his skin. It felt like Sasuke was trying to plot something. It was the same look that Naruto had seen children on the streets give a loaf of bread resting on a windowsill. Because of these signals and feelings, Naruto would not doubt that Sasuke would try to spy on him. Also, the Uchiha had increased his 'need' for more techniques and training; going so far as to follow their lackadaisical sensei like a lost puppy, and complaining like a pregnant woman.

With one finally burst of speed, Naruto came to one of his most frequented solitary training ground. The reason why Naruto used this one training ground, and why it was not used by other Shinobi, was because the training ground was found near one of the more dangerous places in the village. The training ground that Naruto frequented was training ground Forty-Five, the training ground just across from training ground Forty-Four, the Forest of Death. Barely anyone came near the training ground because of the close proximity to the deathtrap so Naruto took that information and used it to his advantage. It also helped that larger than average trees shadowed the area, and the enormous and durable fence, the same fence that divided the monster pit from the rest of the normal world, also came in handy to keep others out.

Once the two teens entered the clearing, Hinata both marveled at the scenery and feared the closeness to the most dangerous training ground in the village. She knew the reputation of training ground Forty-Four, as did most every other sane Shinobi of Konoha. So being close to the death pit grated and caused Hinata's nerves to tremble. She could almost hear the beasts of the forest growling and foaming with hunger. Naruto had let go of her hand and was skipping around the ground, showing and explaining the training area to her, and she had to admire the boy's enthusiasm as well as courage. He was so proud of himself for finding this one training ground, if his smile and loud voice was any indication, and apparently he had found it when he had been running from a squad of ANBU.

Soon his fire died down until his pliable happiness was a barely contained smoldering inferno. He stood in the middle of the clearing, bouncing on his toes in anticipation, smiling at her broadly. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Hinata warily looked around, looking at behind her to subtly investigate the steel chain-linked fence. She had to admit, the clearing was almost too much for her petite nature. The fear of the forest shadowed her heart, but the forest was not the only thing Hinata feared In all honesty, a darkness crept into her mind and she worried that her crush had lied about the technique and was planning on taking advantage of her. They were in an area of the village that people barely visited, so no one could stop Naruto if he planned something sinister. Also no one would know if anything bad happened in the clearing, so it would be Hinata's word against the Hokage's pseudo-grandson. But her knowledge and understanding of Naruto soon crushed her dark fears. She _knew_ Naruto, and she _knew_ that he was not a normal male. With a blush, Hinata brought her fore fingers to her lips and nodded. She did not trust her voice, she did not want to squeak and embarrass herself.

Naruto had come to expect such odd behavior from Hinata. Actually, as he looked back, Naruto found her finger movements and habits rather intriguing and cute. He had always found that her slender fingers were one of her most beautiful qualities, but then again she was a Hyuga and Hyuga's prided themselves with their fingers. Also, the way she brought her upper lip down on the edge of her forefinger, as if to suck it reassuringly, brought a feeling into Naruto's chest. It was then and there that Naruto began to analyze Hinata once again. Her eyes were actually quite beautiful, and her hair and a sheen to it that caused the blonde to want to touch it, to see if it was as silky as it looked. It was a marvel that the boy had never realized how flawless her skin was, how small and delicate she was, and how, well, beautiful she was. He had sat next to her on several instances, and yet he had never stopped to look at her like this. Naruto had always spent his time memorizing Sakura's habits and features that he had never taken the time to observe other girls. And now that he was, he noticed that there were others out there, not just the pink-haired Haruno. Hinata was out there; Hinata was kind; Hinata was caring; Hinata was delicate, yet had an inner strength; Hinata was…Hinata. She was her own person, not like how Ino and Sakura always tried to be someone else to get their crushes love. Hinata never altered herself to other expectations. She never wore makeup to capture the attention of others. She never spoke out or created a scene to be noticed. Hinata was always herself, no matter what others thought of her or no matter how others wanted her to be.

Naruto never realized that the whole time he had been reflecting these things, digesting her appearance and nature, that he had never taken his eyes from her. In fact, half way through his inspection he had locked eyes with her and had kept eye contact for a good minute and a half. In Hinata's case, she was stunned, embarrassed, nervous, but, overall, vigilant. Naruto was finally noticing her. He was looking at her, seeing her. He was finally seeing her and only her, not the pinkette or Ayame or any other woman. He was seeing her. Part of her wanted to mention the boys stare, to tell him that he was staring at her so intensely that it was making her uncomfortable, but another part of her silenced that small insecure voice. The other part knew that this had to happen, this inspection, this revelational study. Something was happening to Naruto, something that pertained to her as well, and she knew that if she interrupted his study then she would loose her one chance. She would loose the opportunity for Naruto to realize that she was a woman, not some shy, timid, unapproachable girl, but a woman that cared for him and would do anything for him. It did not eclipse the fact that she felt naked under his eyes, but she knew that this was necessary.

It seemed that Naruto finally caught himself staring at the young Hyuga. With an _'eep'_ of his own he turned his back to her, in hopes of hiding his blush. He did not know what came over him. One moment he was ready to show this girl his new technique, to wow her and impress her, and the next he was lost in thoughts of Hinata. It wasn't like him. True, Sakura had recently been a little too harsh in the past couple of days, but this was almost insane. But maybe this was a good insane. There was nothing wrong with Hinata, sure she was quiet but sometimes being quiet was a good thing, a sign of a good listener. Naruto had to stop himself from groaning and gripping his head in pain. There were too many thoughts for one moment. Maybe later he would be able to rethink all that had entered his head today. Maybe he could get Sarutobi to help him as well.

Turning his head to give Hinata one last smile, Naruto quickly began the preparation to the technique. Maybe doing what he had originally planned on doing would help clear his mind of all these confusing, yet warm, thoughts. Bring his index finger up to his mouth, he bit down as hard as he could, so he could draw blood. He couldn't help but wince at the pain of biting through his own flesh. It would take some time for him to get used to such an annoying injury. Behind him he had Hinata gasp from behind her fingers, but he could not take time to explain things. If he took the time to reassure the young Hyuga as to why he had to injure himself his cut would most likely seal and then he would have to bite himself all over again. Seeing the blood drip down his finger, Naruto quickly flashed through the hand seals that were need. Again he went slow enough to make sure that he was ding the correct seals but fast enough to challenge himself. Finally he slapped his hands together and shouted out, "**Art of Summing!"**

Once Naruto had pricked his forefinger and drew blood Hinata knew what was up. While Hinata was shy and reclusive she was far from dumb. There was only one type of technique that would need a sample of blood in order to be conducted properly, and that technique was the **Art of Summing**. It all made sense now, why Naruto needed a book on spiders and why he was so secretive. He had some how come across the scroll to summon spiders. Now Hinata was fearful for Naruto's life. Spiders were a dangerous creature and tended to eat other species. If this spider was as big as she thought it was going to be, then they were all in danger, especially Naruto. She rushed forward in hopes of protecting her love, but as she got to him he had completed the technique.

The plumb of smoke obscured not only Naruto but the clearing and training ground. In hopes of summoning something that could most likely help him and inform him about his new technique Naruto had pumped a larger amount of chakra into the summoning. If the plumb of smoke was any indication then summoning a larger spider was guarantied. Suddenly Hinata collided with the young blonde's back, causing him to stumble slightly. When he looked back at her he saw that she was shaking and her eyes were wide in horror. It was as he looked at Hinata that he finally realized how dangerous this choice of summon size was. Her fear transferred to him instantly, but he was not fearful for himself but rather for her. He had wrapped her up with his enthusiasm and had unknowingly put her in danger. Without thinking he turned his back to the plumb of smoke and embraced Hinata in a bear hug. If anything was going to happen, he was going to her shield. He was the one to put her in danger, so he was to _keep_ her from danger.

"Hmm, so I'm the one that was summoned this time?" the voice was similar to that of the librarian. It was a feminine, old, and wise. Like a grandmothers voice. "Good, I doubt Ringumo or any of the other children could help you Naruto-kun."

Naruto was about to reply to the voice but his words lodged deep in his throat once the plumb of Ninjutsu smoke cleared. Standing before him was a creature that shattered his psyche. The spider stood about the same height as a horse, with long faded orange legs and faded black body. It seemed that age had dulled the colors of her once lustrous coat of fur. Another thing that captured Naruto's, and Hinata's, attention were the six humongous eyes, eyes that were the same position and size as those belonging to jumping spiders or wolf spiders. Two of the eyes, the center most eyes, were about the size of softballs while the four eyes just below the larger two were the size of baseballs. The spider's large mouth parts, the large muscles attached to her enormous fangs, were one of the last things that captured Naruto's attention. Her mouth was gigantic and could easily fit either one of the teens within it.

Subconsciously, Naruto moved so that he was physically standing between Hinata and the large spider. His eyes were set with determination. He had brought Hinata into this mess, so he was going to keep her out of it. He was consumed by so much fear and with so much thought that he had completely forgotten that the creature before him and called him out by name and had mentioned helping him.

The spider noticed Naruto's behavior and couldn't help but smile, or smile as much as a spider could. So far Kokubogumo was impressed by Naruto's actions. He did not know that she was harmless and as such he had moved to protect an innocent bystander. The elder wolf spider studied Naruto as well as his guest. Both were young, and if she didn't know any better she would have thought that they had just gotten done with a date. Yet something was odd about the two, like something was missing. As she looked closer, her keen eyes that were gifted to both the wolf spiders as well as the jumping spiders allowed her to see not only physical appearances but 'underneath the underneath' similar to the Hyuga Byakyugan, she got a small feeling that while the girl sought romantic contact Naruto seemed to be oblivious; most men were.

Oh well, Kokubogumo just sighed and squatted down so she did not seem as much as threat as she most likely appeared. "Oh, I ain't goin' hurt you so just relax."

Naruto blinked. Sure the giant spider before him had just told him to relax but the likelihood of that actually coming to fruition was slim. Still this spider seemed to be more intelligent than the last one, so maybe some question could be answered. This decision was made for two reasons: one, Naruto in fact had many questions about his new summoning contract and if he wished to apply it to its fullest potential then it was probably a good thing to know its ins and outs, and two, keeping the spiders attention off the fact that two edible humans stood before her could possibly save their lives.

Taking a step forward, and keeping Hinata's hand firmly grasped in his own behind his back, something that he had not even realized he was doing, Naruto confronted the enormous spider. "Um…my name is Uzumaki Naruto. Uh….what's yours?"

The spider made what sounded like an amused snicker before resting herself down on her belly, she felt that she was most likely going to need to be in a more comfortable position for the explanations that were about to take place. "My name is Kokubogumo. I am the head of the Wolf and Jumping spiders."

"So you're the _boss_ summon?" Naruto asked excitedly. He couldn't believe his luck; he had summoned the boss summon on his second try,

Kokubogumo laughed, "Heaven's no. Jorougumo-sama is the boss summon. I'm just the head of the intelligent spiders."

"Huh?"

The spider hummed. It seemed that Naruto in fact did _not_ know what he had gotten himself into. Kokubogumo debated on how she should explain their summoning contract. The Arachnid contract was an extremely unique as well as bizarre contract, what with having one main ruling boss, three boss summons, and finally separate head summons; there was no easy way to describe the contract. Spying a stick not more than a few feet away Kokubogumo snatched it up with one of her legs. The action caused Naruto to be put on edge, but as soon as Kokubogumo began to draw in the dirt his nervousness ceased. The large spider quickly drew a single large box with the word 'Boss' within it.

"Ok," began the massive spider as she pointed to the box, "every summoning contract has a boss. In this case the Arachnid contract—"

"Wait: 'Arachnid'? This isn't the spider contract?"

Three of Kokubogmo's eyebrows rose across her head. "Let me see the contract."

Naruto looked back at Hinata, her eyes still wide at the fact that a spider that size existed and could also talk, and brought her to his side. Once she was in arms reach he finally let go of her hand and retrieved a small scroll from his pocket, the same scroll that he had signed last night. With a nervous step Naruto present the scroll to the elder spider, and with an equally nervous smile allowed the large spider to take the scroll from him. As she did he noticed that her legs were not as long or meticulous as other spiders were. In fact they were rather 'stubby', or should he say compact. They were legs that held power, but not finesse.

Silently the spider inspected the scroll under the watchful eyes of Naruto and Hinata. The girl was something that was nagging on her conscious. She was quiet, though kind. She stood behind her man, quite literally, and never left him. Or maybe it was just because she was so scared that she could not even move. Oh, well. She inspected the scroll closely. Most of the exterior was faded, so seeing the words labeling the contract was nearly impossible. Other than that the scroll was in excellent condition.

"Where did you find this contract?" Kokubogumo asked as she examined it more.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, I, uh, kinda found it under my floorboards…hehe."

Kokubogumo stared at the blonde. The girl besides he boy giggled, her crush sometimes was just too funny, or honest. Either way, it was just like Naruto to find a one of a kind scroll hidden underneath his apartment's floorboards.

"Yeah," Kokubogumo just rolled her eyes at Naruto's honesty. Honestly, did this boy really have _that_ dumb of luck? "Anyway, the contract you have signed and now possess is actually the Arachnid contract. I will get to what that means later. As for now let's get back to what we were discussing previously, shall we?"

Again Kokubogumo tapped the box labeled 'boss'. "Just like how the Snake summons and the Toad summons have a 'boss', or head summon, the Arachnid contract also has one 'boss'. Now the purpose of the 'boss' summon is to keep order over all the other summons. Like the name pertains he/she is the 'boss' of everyone else who is tied to the contract most likely by display of power or skill. The 'boss' enforces the rules of the society, makes all decisions, and has the final say in all conflicts within the society of the contract.

"Are you getting all of this, or am I going to fast for you?" asked Kokubogumo as she paused to draw three more boxes, connected by lines, in a straight line underneath the first box. Looking up to see that she had not lost the two, or at least Hinata, the wolf spider continued by pointing to the three new boxes she had drawn.

"But the Arachnid contract is a little different. You see, unlike the other contracts in existence this contract pertains to all arachnids. The Toad contract only pertains to toads, not amphibians, and the Snake only pertained to snakes and not all of the reptiles. No, this contract contains all of the arachnid class: spiders, scorpions, ticks, and daddy-longlegs. The daddy-longlegs fall into the same category as spiders. Anyway, each 'race', I guess you could call them, also have a boss summon. In other words: the ticks have a 'boss' summon, the spiders have a 'boss' summon, and the scorpions have a 'boss' summon."

Kokubogumo tapped each of the three newly drawn boxes with her stick for emphasis. "Kirani, the 'boss' summon to the Dani race. Itamisori, the 'boss' summon to the Sasori race. And Jorougumo, the 'boss' summon to the Tsuchigumo race. Yes, it is true that Jorougumo is the 'boss' summon of the whole arachnid contract, but she is also the head of the spider portion of the contract." As she spoke, Kokubogumo wrote in the three names into the three boxes.

"Do you understand?" she asked.

"So…," by now Naruto and Hinata were sitting before the large spider, cross legged, and staring intently at the earth drawings. "There is one king, with three generals...but the king also counts as one of the generals…right?"

Hinata and Kokubogumo blinked owlishly at the blonde's analogy. At seeing their dumbfounded look, Naruto quickly tried to defend himself. "What? It…it doesn't work?" for a reply he looked sheepishly at Hinata.

The girl blinked, "Actually it works perfectly," she said.

Naruto's eyes lit up, but not for the normal reason. "Yay, you spoke without a stutter! I'm so _proud_ of you!" To emphasize his point he wrapped Hinata up in a warm bear hug. The poor girl almost passed out do to the boy's closeness, but the thought of being unconscious next to an enormous spider kept her awake.

"A very good way of thinking about that Naruto-kun," Kokubogumo praised, "Yes, Kirani, Itamisori, and Jorougumo are the three generals of the contract with Jorougumo also being the queen.

"Now," the old wolf spider drew a line down from Jorougumo's 'boss' box, which was connected to the first box, "it doesn't just end at the three generals, but goes further; or at least for the spiders it does. Underneath Jorougumo there are, what you could say, ten commanders; one for each of the main spider clans: crab, venomous, water, jumping/wolf, hunting/warrior, transformation, weaver, tarantula/large spiders, sun spiders, and daddy longlegs. These ten subcategories have their own leaders. Also, each of these 'battalions' have their own specialty: the crab spiders specialize in medicinal plants and medicine, the venomous spiders are skilled in poisons and stealth, the water spiders are good in water, the jumping and wolf spiders are some of the most intelligent, the hunting spider are the strongest when it comes to fighting and the most skilled assassinations, the Jorou's are able to transform into _anything_ as long as they have a blood sample, the weavers can create clothing and structures that are near indestructible, the tarantulas are the largest of all spiders as well as the strongest, the sun spiders have unmatchable speeds, and the daddy longlegs the are the tallest and the wisest."

"Whoa…" was all Naruto and Hinata could say.

"Yes, 'Whoa' indeed. And the funny thing is that this is only the tip of the iceberg."

Naruto's eye gleamed dangerously. "Really? There's more to learn?"

"Indefinitely," Kokubogumo replied, nodding her head. "The Arachnid contract is a _very_ complex one. The reason being is that spiders have over 30,000 different species, each having their own special quirks. Add in the scorpions and the ticks/mites and the contract becomes something that has near limitless possibilities."

Naruto's eyes were wide. There was no possible way that he had this kind of luck. First off: here should have been no way that Naruto should have been able to find a summoning contract on his own, yet he did, and add the fact that this contract was one as special as this one. There was only one thing that Naruto could do after learning this information. He shot to his feet, grabbed Hinata in his arms, and spun her around like a small child.

"Do you believe this, Hinata-chan? This is so cool! So cool, so cool, so cool! This is the best thing ever!" his whoops and shouts of joys mixed with Hinata's shy giggles. He continued to spin her around and around, making her dress flutter in the wind.

Naruto's joy and happiness could barely be contained and so he continued to shower Hinata with his emotions. He spun her, hugged her, spun her again, carried her as he ran around, and hugged her one last time. The end result was one barely conscious, stupid smiling, drooling, and blushing Hyuga Hinata. All she could do was literally hold on for dear life. The boy had lost it, in a sense, but that did not bother Hinata. His happiness and joy only fueled Hinata's courage. Once again the blonde was acting like her battery and filling her to the brim with courage, energy, and life.

But her generator of pure unadulterated energy soon left her embrace. The girl was dampened mentally once her crush left her, but she smiled once she saw why he left. He pulled a truly 'Naruto' action and ran up to the spider that he had summon and embraced her as if she was a lifelong friend. The odd thing about Naruto's action was that the spider had no real place to grab onto unlike humans and other bipedal creatures, so to rectify this Naruto grab the creature's face and held it tightly.

Kokubogumo hissed in surprise at the boy's actions, but soon the spider smiled, as only a spider could, at how the blonde loved on her. The wolf spider was surprised that the boy would do such on action considering that they had not known each other more than two hours, yet he treated her as if they had known each other for more than two decades. So the spider went with the flow of the moment, going so far as to pick up the blonde in two sets of her arms and spun him around much like he had with Hinata.

Though his actions, mental capacity, and overall appearance left much to be desired his heart was what sold him to her. One thing was true, the boy had much to be desired, much, much to be desired, but skills and power and smarts were not the only things that were preferred amongst summons, or at least not the Arachnid summons. The arachnid's, at least the spiders, did not just look for Shinobi skills or high intelligence, but rather the arachnid's looked for family values. What was said about the arachnid kind was true, they at times were cannibalistic as well as violent, but above all they looked after their own. It was almost an oxymoron to think such a violent and distasteful race would honor things like family mind sets.

In fact every summon race looked for one particular quirk to see if their would-be summoner was worthy of their techniques and skills. For the Toads, their summoner had to be well versed in the elements as well as all common Shinobi skills. The reason for this is that the Toads were the most 'human' out of all the summons; they practiced Shinobi techniques, Genjutsus, and other such human practices. The Snakes looked for cleverness and stealth amongst their summoner; since their kind was one creep amongst the grass and sneak up on their prey they sought the same characteristics in their summoner. And the Slugs looked for an equally patient and caring person.

For the spiders, they wanted an individual that understood suffering, hatred, and ridicule. Naruto had all that in spades. Not only that, but Naruto had the heart to understand their strange and misunderstood race. Naruto could relate to them and had the possibility to become one of them. That is what the arachnids looked for.

Kokubogumo had set Naruto down in hopes that they would be able to continue with their lesson and discussion but the boy soon rocketed over to Hinata and wrapped her up in another hug. It seemed that the boy still contained some joy and happiness that had yet to vacate his system. So she allowed him to continue, but silently vowed to cease his celebration soon in order to get on with their discussion. Naruto's display had died down considerably but his hugging nature still held strong for some reason. Hinata was not one bit reluctant in Naruto's display as usual, but she too noticed his diminished form. As of now the boy of her dreams held on to her in a kind and subtle embrace, he did not spin her around or whoop and howler. It was a warm hug, a soothing hug, a lovers hug. She held him just as he held her, she could do little more, not that she wished too.

Naruto did not mean too but he quietly nuzzled Hinata's temple, just above and before the lovely girl's ear. She could feel his smile, one of the smiles which was not too big but not too small. It was a warm smile, just like his arms, which held a happiness that was beyond measure. While his adamant display of joy and happiness was just that, adamant and quite impressive, it was more like the gushing of a fire hose. While a fire hose can be strong and overbearing a finely nozzled hose can cause more impact than just an onslaught of uncontrolled water; a thin stream of water can cut stone, while a thick stream of water can only weather a stone.

That is what Naruto's current joy felt like to Hinata. It felt like a thin stream of compressed water rather than the senseless overflow. It felt perfect and natural, like that was what it was supposed to feel like since the beginning. Hinata felt him nuzzle her temple but said nothing against it. While the girl was shy and introverted she was _far_ from stupid. She knew the moment she mentioned something along the lines of how he was acting so intimately with her was the same moment that he would jump away as if he was burned by a red hot ladle. So she kept her mouth shut, though it was not difficult; her mind was currently running on all her auxiliary in order to stay coherent to the rest of the world. It was her auxiliary that 'forced' her to return his nuzzle to his temple.

A humming smile crossed Naruto's lips as he inhaled is companions hair. "I'm so happy," he mused to himself into Hinata's ear, "I'm _so_ happy."

"I know," she whispered back to him, "I'm so proud of you."

Naruto pulled back from her and looked at Hinata at arm's length. Her faced glowed in the sun's light and her smile only seemed to make the woman's face that much more soothing and appealing. Her eyes shown with their own glee and joy so much that he couldn't help but smile. Again he had to marvel at how he had missed such a sight in all his years at the Shinobi academy, but that no longer matter; now he was enjoying her presence and glow, and that was all that mattered. He smiled once again but quickly realized the closeness between the two of them.

Naruto quickly let go of Hinata, but tried his best not to insult the girl. He stepped back but kept the woman at arm's length. Hinata for her part was a little putdown that Naruto had let go of her but she rationalized that it was time. When the thought of time crossed her mind she gasped and checked the watch that she had been wearing. It was currently three hours since the time she was supposed to be back at home. Oh, her father was going to be furious with her.

"Oh n-no," Hinata whispered under her breath.

"What's the matter Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked quickly as he took a step closer to the young Hyuga.

"I-I-I'm late…"

"What?"

"I-I was s-s-supposed to be h-h-home more th-than three ho-ho-hours ago… F-Father is sure t-t-to be a-angry…"

As quickly as Naruto's smile had formed on his face it morphed into a concerned scowl. "I'm sorry, Hinata-chan. I didn't know that you needed to be home at a certain time."

Instinctively Hinata grasped Naruto's hand in her own. "I-It wasn't y-y-your f-fault," she said in a comforting tone, "I-I-I was enj-j-joyng mys-s-self too m-m-much to re-re-realize the t-t-time."

Naruto's eyes softened considerably and he reached out with his free hand and grasped Hinata's hand in his own. "Do you really mean that?" he asked in a small and childish voice.

Hinata recognized Naruto's vulnerability and smiled her best at him. "I-I m-m-mean e-e-e-everything I-I-I-I s-said."

A smile like one Hinata had never seen before spread across Naruto's face. It was a true, happy smile. It was a smile of the realization that he had a true friend. Though Hinata wished for her crush to embrace for her kindness she chastised herself for thinking such a selfish thought. The past couple of hugs and embraces were making her expect such actions and thus making her greedy for them. She had to remind herself that a kind and heartfelt embrace may not be the common outcome for her.

Naruto nodded at her words and quickly formed a familiar hand seal. "**Art of the Shadow Doppelganger,"** he spoke firmly.

In seconds another Naruto appeared beside the original, clad in the same black shirt and orange pants.

Hinata and Kokubogumo marveled at the technique. Not only was a Doppelganger created but it was no illusion. Rather the Doppelganger was flesh and blood, an exact copy of Naruto down to the same infectious grin. For Hinata it was a technique that had near limitless possibilities; not only could he still cast Shinobi Ninjutsu with the **Shadow Doppelganger **but he could use them to completely overwhelm his opponents and send them into complete disarray. The **Shadow Doppelganger** was a technique that left Hinata breathless as well as giddy. She was breathless because of the possibilities that the technique held in both the battle field…as well as romance. While Hinata was not a pervert by normal and textbook standards, she had her moments as all creatures did. The reason why Hinata was giddy, though, was because Naruto finally had something that would help him be recognized by both the Shinobi populous as well as the world. Hinata was not stupid when it came understanding the populous around her, and she was not an idiot when it came to understand Naruto. She knew that Naruto would need all the help he could get if he was to show the village and the world that he was correct in thinking that he was meant to be Hokage.

Kokubogumo was impressed that the boy would know such a high level and experienced technique. Unlike her kind, Kokubogumo did not one that ventured into the human world. Members of the Jorou clan, the transforming spiders, ventured into the human world on regular passes to find the blood needed to perfect and improve their human transformations. The spiders wandered all major villages, either in their spider form or as their human form, and crept about, stealing samples of blood or hair. They did this to get the most desirable features for themselves, such as adding one woman's oval eyes with another woman's heart-shaped face; or taking a tall woman's stature and mixing it with a physically fit woman's muscle tone. The combinations were endless. So since Kokubogumo did not spirit herself into the human world she did not understand so of the Shinobi's skills or techniques. One thing she did understand, though, was that the technique that Naruto had just showcased was one that was not taught to younger individuals. This could only mean that the boy had some talent. Some major talent. Talent that could push him over the top and beyond. Talent that dwarfed that of the so called 'geniuses'. Interesting…

Turning to his newly summoned Doppelganger, Naruto gave it a set of instructions. "I want you to escort Hinata-chan home."

The Doppelganger nodded in understanding and made its way over to the waiting Hinata. Once it was standing beside the shy girl Hinata sent Naruto a thankful smile and began her trek back home, the Doppelganger sticking to her like figurative glue.

But just before the paled eyed woman was out of sight Naruto cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted one last message to his friend. "Hinata-chan, would it be ok if I call you to help me with my book later?"

When Hinata heard that one question her face resumed its usual tomato red hue. Had Naruto, her one and only love, truly asked her on a second 'date'? He had. He real asked her out again. Naruto never asked her for a second anything, but now he wanted to spend quality time with her and only her. For her answer she could not bring herself to speak, so instead she nodded vigorously; so vigorously in fact that once she stopped the world seemed to spin.

Smiling widely at what he had just witnessed Naruto pumped his fist in the air, happy that his new/old friend had agreed to spend more time with him. Rarely anyone wanted to spend time with him, let alone voluntarily, but Hinata want to spend more time with him. The same surge of happiness as before pumped into his veins and he had to resist the urge to rush forward and envelope Hinata in another hug.

In fear that she would not be able to bring herself to leave the young Hyuga sent one last wave, grab the hand of her escorting Doppelganger and walked briskly out of the training area. Naruto watched her go, a small smile on his face. In the few hours that he had spent with Hinata he had had more fun than he had had in his whole academy career. Her kindness, her warmth, her everything had just made this day that much more enjoyable. Was this normal? Was he supposed to feel this way after just spending one sole day with a girl that he barely talked too? It was odd, almost mind boggling that he was this happy and content after just spending three hours with a girl that he had once thought as dark, creep, and unapproachable. Whatever it was that had happened, Naruto was more than thrilled.

Kokubogumo stalked up besides Naruto and watched as Hinata disappeared from view. "She seems like a good girl," the old spider commented offhandedly.

Naruto did not turn to her, but continued to look off in the direction that Hinata and her escort had gone. Part of him wanted to reply to the spider "Yeah she sure is, and much more", but his fumbling mind caused him to stall. Though his feelings, as waning as they were, for Sakura had not changed new ideals were creeping up when it came to Hinata. She was his friend, a person he was just coming to think of as a person he could talk to without worrying about backlash or ridicule. But there was something different when it came to Hinata. Not only did she have limitless patience but she seemed to actually care about his well being and his thoughts on a subject. He noticed that when she was helping him during their lunchtime study. Not once did the girl sigh dejectedly when he missed a word or when he asked a stupid or childish question; not even Iruka could catch himself when he felt such emotions. No this girl treated him like he was something special, something important, something that was worth the attention.

It was these acts as well as her fleeting glances and warmth that caused most of Naruto's mental congestion. There were times in the past that Naruto noticed how the pale young Hyuga would stare at him during class or out in the playground at lunch or countless other times. The way her eyes seemed to see him, not his front, not his clown like disguised. Her eyes seemed dig into him, like some kind of excavation tool. The strange thing was that the 'digging' of her eyes did not feel like an offensive thing. In fact it felt like someone was taking the find out who he was, not what it was. It left like Hinata wanted to find out who he was; not even the individuals who had the pleasure of being called his 'teammates' had taken the time to find out who he was, or actually is. Then why was Hinata acting in such a way? Why would she want to know more about him?

"Yeah…she sure is…and much more…" he said it anyway. He was not sure if he should vocalize such thoughts, but they were true. They were what he thought, his honest thoughts.

The older spider seemed to know that some kind of inner turmoil was plaguing the child. It was not the bad kind of turmoil, it was the kind of confusion and uncertainty. It was her eyes that allowed such insight into glimpses into his soul. Just like how the Hyuga could see almost all blatant and hidden thoughts and emotions just by looking at a person's face. This woman was sending this boy into something, some kind of revelation or new found thoughts.

Smiling nonetheless Kokubogumo looked out towards Hinata's departure. "She sure is."

XxXxX

For the first few minutes the trek back to the Hyuga compound was uneventful and painfully quiet. Hinata was having difficulty processing that there was not only one Naruto over with Kokubogumo but also with her. While she understood the idea and concept of the technique it was just mind blowing to think that the boy standing besides her was the same boy that was discussing things with the gigantic spider summon. It shouldn't be possible, yet there he was standing besides her just like real one would, smiling as the original would, held the same warmth as their hands touched, and laughed the same way. It was mind boggling, he was Naruto yet at the same time he was not.

Before the young girls mind could implode she quickly began to focus on their journey. They were currently taking a round about trip it get back to her compound. The Hyuga compound was found near the north-west side of the village, which was directly one mile across the main gate of the village. Since the Hyuga clan was one of the most important, talent wise, group of individuals to Konoha the Shodai Hokage had decided to have their dwelling be one of the center most structures in the village. Another reason for this was so that an invasion shelter would be protected by some of the villages most skilled warriors, for under the large compound of blood limit users was one of the villages most thorough and fortified shelters in all the village; it was seconded only by the Hokage Monuments inner invasion shelter.

One of the many ways to get to the compound would be to trek through the shopping district, a district that spanned the entirety of the village from east to the west of the village. The reason of this decision was that by having the shopping district span the entirety of the village no one would have to journey to far in order to shop. Yes it was a rather lazy decision but it was one of the best decisions made since the founding of the village. The reason why Hinata had chosen to venture a different way to return home was because she wanted a smooth trip. If she were to travel through the market then she would have to weave her way through shopping house wives and gossiping civilians. It would only hamper her journey, thus making her even more late as already was, and also she feared that if she were to brave the shopping district her 'Naruto' would pop.

So the route that Hinata had chosen was one that bypassed the market strip and touched the outer ridge of the village. The compound was approximately a mile from the training ground she had just visited, so the time it would take her to get home by taking a round about route would be half an hour. It wasn't really that bad of time, but the thought of silence the whole time with her crush was something that was that was slowly whittling away at her mind. It was just so strange to have someone who wore the same face as Naruto not be Naruto.

"So…" his voice was quiet, the kind of voice that someone would use to start a conversation while not trying to startle the person to whom the conversation was addressed too, "So, can I ask you something?"

With a blushing face and twiddling fingers Hinata meekly replied, "Y-Y-Yes…"

"Ok," the Doppelganger placed his two hands behind his head as he contemplated what he should ask. "Hmm…why do you always look at me, uh, boss?" He smiled shyly at the girl even as her face exploded outward and down her body with a nice tomato red hue, "Sorry, I feel like boss so I hope you don't mind if I mess up on the formalities."

As for the young woman her mind was nearly short circuited. Though he was a clone he asked something that ended her thought process with little trouble. Thoughts of how to side step the question flashed in her mind: maybe she could fib and say that every time she gazed at him longingly that she was only staring at the remnants of food that he had on his cheeks, or maybe she could say that she was staring off into space and he so happened to be the thing that her eyes locked on…all those 289 times she stared at him.

But a small, tiny voice spoke over all the ridiculous claims and fibs and lies. It said, "Now is your _chance!_ Tell him! This is what you've been _waiting for!_ Say it! **Say it!"**

With her fingers gliding against her lips, creating a barrier of protection against her and the world, Hinata collected every last ounce and molecule of courage that she had within her soul. She didn't notice that her breath was coming in short burst, or that a fine sweat was breaking out across her forehead and body, or that she was starting to tremble. The Doppelganger noticed these things but feared that if he mentioned them Hinata would either fall apart like the pristine glass figurine that she was or that she would faint.

She turned her head away from her crush in fear that she would lose her cool and thus take two _large_ steps back in her current relationship with the blonde. Never had Hinata felt such fear at all in her life: not when she had stared down her father during one of their training exercises, not when her step-mother tried to act all 'friendly' with her, not even when she was pitted against Neji in one of their 'family bonding sections'. This was a fear that troubled her to the core and beyond, but it was a fear that could bring forth something worthwhile.

"N-n-n-n-no mat-tt-tt-er wh-wh-what o-o-o-th-er-ers th-th-thought of y-y-you, n-n-n-no m-m-m-mat-t-er h-h-h-ow m-m-much p-p-p-p-p-peop-p-ple h-h-h-h-h-h-hurt y-y-y-y-ou o-o-r h-h-h-h-hate y-y-y-y-ou o-o-o-o-o-or c-c-c-c-urse y-y-y-y-you o-or s-s-pit o-n y-you y-you al-al-always sm-sm-sm-smile a-a-a-a-and l-l-laugh a-a-a-and r-r-r-r-em-m-main st-str-ong a-a-a-a-and k-k-k-k-k-kind. T-t-t-t-t-t-t-th-a-a-a-a-ts wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-why I-I-I-I-I-I wh-wh-wh-wh-at-ch-ch-ch y-y-y-y-you… th-th-th-th-that i-i-i-i-i-i-i-is wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-at I adm-m-m-m-m-mire a-a-a-a-about y-y-y-y-y-y-ou. Th-th-th-th-th-th-that's wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what I l-l-l-l-l-l-like ab-b-b-b-bout y-y-y-y-ou. Th-th-th-th-th-th-that's wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what I l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-lov-v-v-v-v-vv-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-e ab-b-b-bb-b-b-b-bout y-y-y-y-y-you."

'Naruto' just stared at her dumbly. Again the fear from before gripped her in every which possibly: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and every other kind of '-ally' a person could think of. She stole a glance to her left and saw that the boy of her dreams was staring at her as if she was some type of walking fugu fish. It was humiliating and embarrassing; she had just bared herself down to her soul and he was just looking at her like some pitiful circus freak. Maybe that was all her ideals and hopes were, just a circus, a fantasy, a pipedream. It was true that the boy was dense, some would say his skull could crack even the most refine steel, but perhaps he was too dense. Perhaps he was so dense that her chances with him were none rather than slim.

"Uh…" here it came, his rejection, his rebuttal, his downright 'no'. "Your stutter kinda mashed that all up. So what did you say?"

If Hinata had not been so mortified because of her stupidity she most likely would have slipped and fell flat on her face. Now the young Hyuga felt like a true fool. Not only had she messed up her speech but her crush had not even understood what she had even said. The dark thoughts of giving up crawled into her head just as they did when she was up against an obstacle that was too great. Her face fell towards the ground and her self-confidence plummeted like never before.

Naruto may have been dense most of his life, but not even he missed Hinata's aura shift to a gloomy and overall pathetic air. Confusion ran rampant inside Naruto. He couldn't understand why she was so down; sure she had had some difficulty talking just now, and yes her speech was so muddled that he had no way of understanding what she had just said, but that does not warrant a look that made it seem that she had just watched her puppy be kicked with steel cleat boots. So for countless minutes Naruto and Hinata walked side by side, Hinata walking slowly, her shoulders slumped and her head down in shame, Naruto walking with equal slowness so as to not overrun the girl, his hands behind his head for comfort.

If only there was a way to cheer the girl up. Naruto, even as a Doppelganger, hated to see girls, no matter who they were, so down in the dumps, so depressed. Just as he thought about Hinata's depression another thought came to mind. A devious, sinister, sly smile came to Naruto's lips. One strange and rather interesting thing about **Shadow Doppelgangers**, besides their them being a perfect copy of their castor and their knowledge transferring capabilities (something Naruto still did not know about), was that **Shadow Doppelgangers** sometimes were created with 'flaws'. These 'flaws' are actually suppressed, or perhaps 'consciously denied' would be a more precise term, thoughts, personality traits, and emotions. Because the real Naruto did not know this he could not fathom what his Doppelganger was about to do.

"Hey Hinata-chan?" the Doppelganger asked nonchalantly eyes straight ahead, "I gotta say, you should wear your coat less." A quiet, shy, but questioning glance came from the young navy haired woman, and at seeing the quirked eyebrow Naruto continued, "I mean, if you dressed like _this_ when we were still in class, I _know_ for a fact that you could have given Sakura-chan and Ino-chan a run for their money. I mean…wow, you look _fantastic!_ You should _seriously_ dress more like this."

That honest, albeit bold, comment got the desired response 'Naruto' was looking for. Not only did Hinata's face heat up, but it seemed that her _entire_ body heated up as well. She was red from head to toe. Within her mind she was trying to process what the Doppelganger had just said; she was more beautiful then Sakura-san and Ino-san? She looked breathtaking and ravishing all in one go? No, there was no _way_ that that is what the Doppelganger had just said. It just couldn't be.

"Y-y-y-y-our-r-r-r-r j-j-j-j-j-jjust s-s-s-aying th-tht-that…."

The sly grin grew across Naruto's face, "You would think that but I'm not 'just saying that'. I honestly think that, and not only that. It's just…hmm, how should I put this…you seem a lot kinder then I first suspected. I mean, this morning if someone had asked mean 'What do you think of Hyuga Hinata?' I would have responded 'Isn't she the creepy coating wearing girl that sits in the back of class?'" Hinata's face fell considerably lower at naruto's evaluation of her, but Naruto was not quite done yet, "Well, that was what I thought this morning. Yet low and behold I would come across the same 'creepy coating wearing girl' wearing an amazing dress, and it only seemed to get better since this _same_ girl, a girl that usually could hold an entire conversation with me, offered to help me read a book. Now that just blew me out of the water. You not only helped me, but also made a simple noontime pit-stop into a fun experience. We should eat out together more often." He then quickly shifted gears, and tone of voice, and quietly said one last thing, "You really helped me back there Hinata-chan, and I always remember those who help me out. Always."

He grew silent after that, and allowed the flustered young woman to revel in her thoughts. Naruto had enjoyed her company. He was happy that she had joined him for lunch and helped him with his reading incompetence. A feeling Hinata was unfamiliar with began to boil in her stomach. It flared out to all of her extremities, heating them and fueling them. It was an exhilarating feeling, like she was being pumped with rocket fuel about to be sent into orbit. It felt like the world's largest syringe had just injected her with pure adrenaline. It was like…no matter what analogy she could have given to describe the feel of whatever it was within her.

It was this feeling that began to fuel her confidence. Since the being of Naruto's little triad about her beauty and elegance she had had her fingers near her mouth for comfort and reassurance. Now, however, her fingers were slowly leaving her quivering lips, her heart was racing, her eyes no longer held an embarrassed half-liddenness. It was now or never.

Taking a deep, deep breath to calm her nerves and to focus that strange heat within herself, Hinata centered her thoughts and began to speak once again. In hopes of getting her cosmos changing confession right this time, Hinata had decided to speak slowly and clear; it did not matter if it took her all night to get the confession right, nothing was stopping her now. "Naruto-kun…the reason why I watch you…is because I admire your strength…"

"My strength?'

"Please…d-don't interrupt…" scolded Hinata before she took another deep breath and continued, "I've watched for some time…so long I forget when I first started. I've watched because I admire your strength, the strength to be yourself no matter how many people want you to be something else… You have a strength that I will never possess… you have a happiness that I will never grasp… you have a courage that I will never achieve. I feel that if I am near you, if I watch you, I too may be able to grasp these things. Maybe if I watch I can learn how to achieve that same happiness. Naruto-kun…" she took a deep breath and stared directly into his sapphire eyes, "Naruto-kun…" it didn't matter that he was a **Shadow Doppelganger,** "Naruto-kun…" all that mattered was that this was happening, "Naruto-kun…I've liked you for the longest time…I've admired you for the longest time…I've l-l-loved you for the longest time…."

They had come to a stop without knowing it. Face to face they stood. Hinata was surprisingly the one standing firm; her eyes directly centered on Naruto's, her fists clenched at her side, and her breath strong and dense. Naruto was the one that shaken. Never in his life, his boss's life, had he had something like this happen to him. Part of him could not believe that it had actually happened.

"Hi-hinata-chan…what are you talking about?"

The girl sighed at the blonde's question. "What I'm talking about is you. Naruto you don't understand how unique, how strong, how courageous, how perfect, how kind, how one of a kind you are." The feeling within her belly began to flare like a supernova and consume her. "Those people out there don't understand. They yell at you, curse you, spit on you—don't try to deny that, I know what happens out there. I don't know why, but I don't care. All I know is that Uzumaki Naruto is Uzumaki Naruto. That is what I love about you; you don't try to change yourself to suit others tastes. Naruto-kun," she reached forward and touched his cheek, "I know what I'm talking about."

Again, Naruto was speechless. Something began to stir inside him just as it had inside Hinata. There was no way that Hinata was sane. Surely she was suffering from a blow to her skull, or maybe that disease that caused her whole body to erupt into a red hue was affecting her mind. But one thing was for sure, Hinata did _not_ know what she was talking about.

"Hinata-chan…I don't think you understand. I-I'm not all you make me out to be…"

"And I am?"

"Yes!" the Doppelganger blurted. "No one has ever helped us. No one! If only you could see yourself. If only you could see how you look, how you act, how you smile. If only you could see that you don't need me for you 'lack of confidence'. Hinata-chan," he griped her shoulders, "you don't need me. You don't need to _love_ me. You don't even know what that pertains."

The flame in Hinata's belly intensified via a new emotion; frustrated anger. She wanted to scream at the boy, she wanted to strike the boy, she wanted to pull him into a kiss that stole his breath away. Growling in annoying, an act that the young Hyuga did not even know she could perform, Hinata poked the blonde child in the chest. "I could say the same to you. If only you could see how you are, how wonderful you are. Grr, I know _exactly_ what I'm talking about."

Before Hinata could continue the sound of a throat being cleared interrupted both Naruto and Hinata. Both gave a startled shout and turned to see that a Hyuga guard now stood before them, his keen eyes scanning them and finding all that could be found, both externally and internally. It seemed that for some time, the two teens had been standing by the western wall of the Hyuga compound without even knowing they had reached it. The guard stood tall, taunt, and noble, yet he had a look of pure distain in both his face and his eyes; then again all Hyuga's had that same look all of the time. His hair was like all the other Hyuga's, long, dark, and well kept.

"Uzumaki-san, I see that you have been looking after Lady Hinata. That is good; Lord Hiashi and _Lady_ Kakiare have been worried for some time. As for you Lady Hinata, you are late," the guards voice was cold and sturdy, like folded steel.

While Naruto was defensive towards the individual, Hinata puffed out her chest and confronted the man with little worry. "Yes I am late, but as you can see I am having a rather important and _private_ conversation, so if you would be so kind as to leave us for several more minutes it would be appreciated."

The guard nodded his head, "Normally I would, but your father gave strict orders to bring you to him the moment you returned home. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."

It seemed that the information that she would no longer have time with her crush was dwindling caused her belly to cool to nothing more than a scoop of soft serve ice-cream. Shakingly she turned back to her crush only to have her belly became a tundra rather than a cool ice-cream cone. He looked just as he did seconds before but with her confidence and her fire gone he looked so wonderful that she shamefully averted her eyes like one would if looking at the sun. With that thought and feel Hinata made her way towards the guard.

The guard bowed to Naruto formally and turned to follow the young Lady back to the front gate of the house and thus back into the compound. Naruto was silent the whole time, just watching her go. For him, his mind was a muddle of uncertainty and confusion. Part of him still could not believe that Hinata had said such things, let alone meant them. There was just no way. But the way her eyes shone when she spoke. It was like she actually knew what she was talking about. Maybe she did know what she was talking about. Maybe.

Without warning Hinata rushed from in front of the guard and back to Naruto. Her eyes had that same shine to them. In one last ditch effort Hinata had mustered up all the remaining courage and confidence she had and focused it in one action: saying good bye to her Naruto-kun. In the back of the navy haired girls mind she knew that this act could very well place her in a week long coma but if all went well it would be worth it. So she rushed him and before he could defend himself she moved to place a chaste kiss on his cheek. At least that was what the plan was; what Hinata did not account for was a well placed pebble to be in her way. The pebble fell under the young Kunoichi's foot and thus tripped her. Seeing this, Naruto quickly came to her rescue, but in miss judging the force needed as well as the girls height and weight Naruto accomplished something that he had not foreseen.

They collided and instead of the intended rescue or the intended chaste cheek kiss the two ended up kissing one another…on the ground…in a position that could be thought of as one that was overly intimate. With the miscalculation on Naruto's part he had bowled Hinata over, and with Hinata's aim sent asunder by the blonde's actions her lips were shift three inches from their desired destination. So we find Hinata with her back flush against the ground with one Uzumaki Naruto pinning her to the ground. Both teens' eyes were wide, and both teens' hearts thundered in their ears. Both could not process that this act had happened. Both could not believe that both had stolen the others first kiss.

For Naruto his mind was a storm of panic. There he was kissing the villages 'princess' in front of a Hyuga guard no less. Add the fact that his body weight was pinning her to the ground and that all of his motor functions were currently off line; this single misfortune looked as if Naruto was trying to take advantage of the Hyuga heiress. Something stopped him from spring up right and running for his life: the texture of Hinata's lips. They were soft but with a hint of chappedness. The blond had heard stories about how a woman's lips were irreplaceable, that their softness, taste, and being were things that would never be forgotten or replicated. It was true, but Hinata's lips were far from perfect. They were human, with human flaws and human textures. Her lips were not angel soft as stories said but they were soft with a hint of roughness. Also they had no real flavor, no sweetness. Another thing that Naruto thought was odd was the fact that the both of them were still kissing.

Hinata was having a better time than her blonde was. The kiss was everything she thought it was going to be and much more. Naruto's lips were like silk against her own and held a hint of salt in their taste. It was fantastic. It was like she had dreamed it would be; him pinning her to the ground with his delicious weight as he ravaged her lips with his own, showing her his affection rather than speaking it. It was wonderful. During the kiss she kept her eyes open to help memorize Naruto's delightful expression as well as burn his deep blue eyes into her memory. Never had she been this close to the boy to examine his eyes so well and she was not going to let this single opportunity slip. Her joy only seemed to grow exponentially as the time ticked by.

Another cough from the Hyuga guard caused Naruto to disengage his kiss with Hinata. Panting, the two continued to stare at the other, looking not only at the others' flush face of gasping lips but at what the others' eyes held. It is said that more than just color could be held within a person's eyes. Naruto did not fully believe this tale, but after staring deeply into Hinata's eyes he began to get an inkling about what it meant. The cough sounded again but neither Naruto nor Hinata paid the man any attention.

"Wow…" Hinata said quietly.

"Wow…" Naruto said quietly back to Hinata.

"Happy you didn't kiss Sasuke?" the girl teased.

Naruto chuckled and rested his head in the crook of the navy haired girl's neck, exhaustion overtaking him. When Naruto had returned to class for team placement he had come inches from losing his first kiss to his arch rival and fellow male. What had happened was an accidental elbow to Naruto's rear, when he was literally face to face to Sasuke trying to upstage and intimidate, almost caused him to lip lock with the Uchiha. Luckily Naruto's quick thinking had helped the boy divert the embarrassing kiss into an embarrassing embrace. He had dived to the felt and had brought his arms up to brace himself, so the outcome was Naruto hugging Sasuke in such a way it looked like they had just gotten done with a heated climax.

"Yeah, that's an understatement."

"Uzumaki-san!" the guards hand gripped the back of Naruto's black shirt and hauled him up off of the young Lady. "I think you have done _quite_ enough for today! I _urge_ you to leave before either I or _Lord Hiashi_ decide to extricate you from the grounds _forcefully_!"

Naruto smiled sheepishly like a caught cat. The guard was easily holding him two feet off the ground with little trouble. It was at that moment that Hinata, propped up on her elbows, realized just how lacking Naruto was in the height department. The guard, who was a regular in guarding both the gates of the compound and the compound itself, was of normal adult male height, around five feet ten inches tall. That being said, the older man was easily lifting Naruto up so his feet dangled two feet above ground, where as a normal child Naruto's age would only be dangling about one and a quarter foot off the ground.

"Heh he…" the teen chuckled nervously form his jailor's grasp, "Well…I guess I will see you sometime soon….yes?"

"H-h-h-h-h-hh-opefully…" the shy girl said from her position on the ground, a smile on her face nonetheless.

"Indeed," snorted the guard, "But this will not go unreported to Lord Hiashi. Just hope that the good Lord is in a good mood. He might be, he is do for one this month."

"Month?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, once a month the good Lord has a good day. His is due sometime soon," offhandedly replied the guard. "But for now, _be gone!_"

"Bye Hinata-chan!" and with that the Doppelganger dispelled itself into a plumb of smoke.

The two Hyuga's stood there gazing in amazement. Seconds ticked by before a saddened, frustrated, and annoyed sigh/scream split the air. With all the commotion Hinata had forgotten that 'Naruto' had not been Naruto but rather a copy of Naruto. That meant that the real Naruto did not know what had occurred with Hinata and her confession. As for the guard, he gazed on in amazement.

"So Uzumaki-san knows **Art of the Shadow Doppelganger?**" a smile creased his face shortly after, "Interesting. Now come Lady Hinata, your father and…_mother_ wish for your presence." With tear filled eyes, Hinata nodded reluctantly and followed the strolling guard back to the front gate and into the compounds main lawn.

XxXxX

The way that the Hyuga compound was constructed was similar to how the Konoha Public Library was constructed. The construct favored right angles, wide spaces, perfect squares and equilateral triangles, and multiple levels. A ten foot tall wall encompassed the entirety of the estate within its perfect square perimeter. After that there were about fifty feet of lawn, trees, shrubs, gardens, and other flora between the high wall and the main house. The house was more than five stories high, also a perfect cube, and as wide and long as it was high. Each level was dedicated to a certain section of the Hyuga family; the top most floor was dedicated to the 'leading' members of the household: Hiashi and his family and all other members that were directly related to him or his newly married wife. The fourth floor was dedicated to other main branch members as well as the third. The second and the first floor were used solely to house the branch members of the family. The thought behind the design was that the branch members would be used to defend against attackers and protect the main branch who were on the higher and harder to reach floors.

While the architecture and the tastes of the carpenters and the artisans that had put this one of a kind structure within Konoha's walls, the family that lived within it was far from perfect. Yes, while the family was one of the most well educated, cultured, and behaved family in all of Konoha, the beliefs, ideals, practices, and mindsets were far from what the family appeared to be. The complete and utter degradation of the branch family was but one example, and a rather public one at that. Other more subtle, yet equally blasphemes, teachings were hammered into the family members' minds. Do not speak out of turn or against the teachings of the house; do not love another more than the family arts; do not show weakness, it can hamper the family; do not show kindness, it can create openings for the family to be attacked; do not associate outside the family unless duty oriented or absolutely necessary; the list was endless.

Though Hiashi was born, bred, and molded to be the perfect example of the family it did not stop him from slowly resenting the family. Maybe resent was not the correct term; maybe pity it or even scoff at it would be more correct. It was not until the death of his late wife Amaiki that Hiashi truly began to understand the filth that the Hyugas were drowning in.

At the moment Hiashi sat his in study looking over the family finances. That was another thing that the family controlled; not only the minds of the obedient brothers and sisters but also their wages and income. The way that the Hyuga's managed money was this: no one had money, or at least vast amounts of it, only the family as a whole had money. Each Shinobi of the family, once paid, was required to 'donate' ninety percent of their earnings to the family account, while keeping only a measly ten percent for trinkets and other oddities such as personal clothes. The money, once collected, went into a bank account that only the main branch members or the head members of the branch families could access. By using this strange and uncommon use of collective finances the main branch was never low on funds.

Hiashi sighed heavily. The lower branch families had been complaining due to lack of money. The only thing that could be causing that was the main branch, or rather some of the pompous bigots that thought that the collective accounts of for their use only. This happened ever so often; some purchase happy main brancher would go on a shopping spree, while encouraging his fellows, and take a hefty chunk of the family's nest egg out for everyone. Though this type of selfishness only happened once in a great while, it still gave everyone in the family a large and annoying headache.

The Hyuga lord placed the report down back on his study's desk and leaned back in his leather wrapped chair. Years ago something such as this wouldn't have even fazed Hiashi, but now…now it was something that needed to be dealt with in due haste. It was hard to believe that in disobeying one of the family's central and unquestioned rules would lead the man called Lord Hyuga to rethink almost everything that he had believed. Speaking of his disobedience, she should be awaking soon.

In order to understand Hiashi's one disobedience one must first understand the past of Hiashi. In Hiashi's younger years he only had three friends, two young girls named Kakiare and Amaiki and his twin brother Hizashi. Together the four of them were inseparable. They played together, cried together, lived together, loved together, and learned together. Out of the four of them, Kakiare was the oldest by just a year, while the other three were all the same age. Also, all of the children were part of the main branch of the Hyuga family.

Kakiare was the daughter of the grounds keeper. Like her name suggested she was a little chaotic when compared to Hyuga standards. The girl loved to start fights, get into trouble, steal, prank, push people's buttons, and have fun; she was everything that the family was not. It was these things that drew the younger children to her. Kakiare was born in a year that no other Hyuga children were born, so she had no peers. Also the children that were a year older than her thought of her antics as infantile and unflattering, so the older children would have nothing to do with the gardener's daughter.

Amaiki was the poster child to what a Hyuga individual should be. She was proper, kind, regal, quiet, clean, and soft spoken. But she was not without her 'faults'. She was a caring individual, so much so that she refused to learn any form of lethal combat; she was forced to learn how to defend herself but that was as far as she was willing to go. The young daughter of the family's chef was the complete polar opposite to her bosom buddy Kakiare.

They stayed close to one another as they grew up, but once Hiashi's and Hizashi's tenth birthday came around they started to fall into their born roles. Hiashi entered the training procedures of the next head of the Hyuga clan, while Hizashi was drafted into the cadet branch and trained to be his brother's personal bodyguard and body double. Kakiare and Amaiki never once left either of the boys' side, even with their training and lessons the girls always found time once a day to meet up with the two boys to encourage them and uplift them.

Hiashi was close to the two girls. They were his closest friends, knower of his darkest secrets and understanding of his dreams. But even the two girls started to see a change in their closest and most loved friend once he started his training for lordship. It was a hidden fact to Hiashi that both Kakiare and Amaiki loved him with all their heart, but Hiashi was much like Naruto; he did not see their affection. When the adolescent Hiashi finally noticed and acknowledge the two girls affection, he was met with yet another dilemma. He was forced to choose between his two loves.

On one hand he could choose the fiery and unpredictable Kakiare. If he did he would forever have to deal with the stares of the other main branch members and their whispers; he knew how the family hated their residential black sheep, and if he were to marry her she would only be ridiculed more under the pretense of Hiashi pitying the girl and lifting her already strained reputation. On the other hand he could choose the quiet, picture perfect Amaiki. She was what the Lady of the Hyuga clan should be, act, and 'feel'. But to Hiashi it felt like as she was missing something.

The decision was mind numbing. The decision was teeth rattling. The decision was one that was tearing Hiashi up inside. It reminded him of the semi-perverted harem based manga he used to read when he was little, but this was far worse. In the end he let his lordship conditioning win out and he chose Amaiki. It was the smartest decision at the time. Kakiare was not forgotten. She was still Hiashi's and Amaiki's closest friend and godmother when Hinata was born. The young tempest accepted Hiashi's decision and agreed with how he reasoned it; Amaiki was how the matriarch that should be portrayed and the image of the Hyuga clan was one of the most important things to the Hyuga clan.

For the next seven years of Hiashi's and Amaiki's marriage was perfection. Hiashi loved Amaiki with all of his being, just as a husband should, and Amaiki loved Hiashi just as a wife should. Two years into the couple's marriage Hinata was born. Moments after their little ray of sunshine was born Kakiare was labeled godmother. Kakiare was ecstatic about having a pseudo daughter to spoil and spent most of her free time doing so; this was because Hiashi and Amaiki were busy with clan matters and because of the Kyubi's rampage the two heads of the Hyuga clan had their plates filled with meetings.

Five years after Hinata's birth Hanabi was brought into the world, but do to bad judgment in the post delivery management Amaiki picked up pneumonia and after two weeks of combating the disease succumb to the illness. Hiashi was completely and utterly devastated. He shut himself in his study for days on end, leaving Hinata and Hanabi to the care of their godmother. The head of the Hyuga was a shadow of himself once he emerged from his study; in his place was the picture perfect image of a Hyuga clan head, ruthless, stern, unforgiving, and strict. He took it upon himself to mold Hinata into the leader she was meant to be four years ahead of schedule. He pounded his daughter into the ground, pushing her past her limit and beyond. He was almost cruel in his teachings and lessons, and Kakiare took notice of this.

One day after Hinata was once again forced into the family's infirmary the storm of a woman marched stray to Hiashi's personal study and blew the door right off its hinges. Hinata was as much her daughter as she had been Amaiki's and she would be damned if any more harm came over her. Kakiare's plan was to beat some sense into her best friend even if it meant being executed for insubordination. What she found though, when she broke down the leader of the Hyuga clan's door was something that she would remember until she died.

There sat Hiashi weeping over the picture of his dead wife. Forever and until the earth was reduced to dust Kakiare would remember those reddened, tear filled eyes as they regarded her with hollow shock. Without thinking the Hyuga woman rushed her best friend and cradled him in her arms. She had never thought that Hiashi had been so affected by Amaiki's death. Sure she figured that he had mourned for those five days that he had been locked up in his study, but never had she witnessed something like this. Never had Hiashi cried as such.

As she held him, Hiashi told her the truth. After Amaiki's death he had vowed to make Hinata strong. He saw too much of his former wife in his daughter that he feared the same fate would befall her as well. So Hiashi trained her so that she would not fall victim to the same demise as his love. He knew that he was killing his daughter on the inside but he did not know any other way to combat his fear. The only way he saw to protect his daughter was to rebuild her so that she would not be the kind of woman his loving wife had been.

Kakiare understood her friends reasoning but scolded him on his actions. She explained to him that his fear was natural but his ideals of changing his daughter were not. Hinata was just like her mother, kind, calm, quiet, and caring, and there was nothing that the head of the Hyuga clan could do to make Hinata stronger, but there was everything he could do to make her weaker. She explained that his actions were making Hinata weaker than Amaiki ever was, and she foretold that if Hiashi continued the affects could very well be permanent.

Hiashi grudgedly agreed that Kakiare was right. He understood that his training and harshness were destroying his daughter, but all he wanted was for his daughter to be stronger than any other Hyuga so she did not know the pain that he had known. Even with his spirits lightened, while being dimmed at the same time in shame do to his actions, he was in a weakened state like he had never been before. Kakiare knew this, she did not need her Byakugan to see that he was vulnerable and weak. But he needed someone. He needed comfort, even if it was against the primary rules of the family.

So throwing caution to the wind Kakiare stole a kiss from her love. During his marriage she had never once stopped loving him. She knew it was wrong in a sense but she never once stopped loving him. The family saw affairs within marriage, sexual activity outside of marriage, and remarriage as an insurmountable sin. To the Hyuga's nothing was worse than sins of the flesh. They were the most deplorable, weakening, and despicable. Hyuga members were meant to stay celibate until their marriage, and if their partner were to die they were obligated to stay celibate until their death. This rule was in place to make the Hyuga clan pure in the public's eye. They were not like the Uchiha who had scandal after scandal, no they were pure and perfect, just like their home.

Yet with that one kiss Hiashi fell into the most despicable sin to find closure in the death of his wife. He kissed his ex-love, touched her, and became one with her. Both knew that for the most part they were using one another like the filth outside their walls; Kakiare was using Hiashi to lose her virginity to after twenty-eight years, and Hiashi was using Kakiare in order to remember the warmth that he had lost. They stayed together, joined as only a man and a woman could join, for hours on end. They did not move, they just lay within the other embrace, soaking in the affection of the other and washing away each others loneliness. Even as they lay their together they knew that what they had done could easily destroy them both, but cared little of that. Just like with Amaiki Hiashi was happy once again, and just like in years past Kakiare was happy.

They kept their actions a secret for three years, but they never stopped their midnight rendezvous. At least once a week the two would meet under the cover of darkness to revel in each others warmth and flesh, but as their bodies molded to one another their hearts began to tie to the other. Slowly the feelings to their past were catching up with them and they found themselves falling in love once again. There was only one problem, with Amaiki's death Hiashi was meant to be by himself until he died. He was meant to be silent and alone forever. Neither could have that.

In the day they met as they normally would, Kakiare taking full responsibility as Hinata's and Hanabi's godmother. The two adults ate together, worked together, and lived together as a normal family could. It was not until Hanabi had asked "Where's mommy" when asking where Kakiare was that Hiashi knew what had to be done. For the next three weeks Hiashi pleaded with the elders of the family to allow him to marry Kakiare but the denied him the pleasure of such an action going so far as to threaten 'dethronement' and death. At the end Hiashi sat in bed with his lover beside him. They were never meant to be. They were doomed to love each other in their hearts only, never within their words or their flesh. She reached up to comfort him one last time, but he caught her hand. He had been loyal to ever aspect of the Hyuga way of life so why not allow this one quest for solace and closure.

Without saying a word he 'kidnapped' his lover and spirited her across town. While he had been debating with the Hyuga elders Hiashi had been looking for his own way around things. He had found it even if it was infantile. He had decided to go against what the elders had said and went forth and found a priest willing to wed him and his soon to be wife; consequences be damned. The priest was on the opposite side of town, a little old man in a religion that had all but faded in the light of the village. Hiashi had contacted him after he found that the priest could form a union between Kakiare and himself so strong and binding that the elders of the family could do nothing against it.

When he arrived, a squealing and giddy Kakiare clutched tightly in his arms, the priest quickly opened his home's doors and ushered them in. They were only in their sleep wear, Hiashi in his white drawstring robe and boxer shorts and Kakiare was wearing her black lace teddy with matching undergarments. The priest paid no mind to their lack of dress, in fact he smiled and joked about how much of a hurry they seemed to be in. The priest was well aware of their situation, he knew about what the elders thought and how they felt about the situation but he was all for Hiashi's and Kakiare's decision. The old priest was a sucker for romance and he vocalized it with pride, that was why he was he had decided to wed the two.

The two were more than happy with the man's compliance. Finally they could be together, and Hinata and Hanabi would finally have a mother to rely on. That was another reason why the two adults decided to wed. Hinata and Hanabi needed a mother, both had seen it during their three year endeavor. They had seen how Hiashi's treatment had worn Hinata down to very little, and the little girl needed a woman that she could rely on and learn from. There was no one that Hiashi trusted more in his children's care than Kakiare.

Unfortunately the two Hyuga forgot that in order to get wedded they needed at least two witnesses to the ceremony. They did not have two witnesses. They could not be wed. Hiashi cursed his luck. He had planned out everything yet somehow he had forgotten one of the most important elements for the wedding to take place. But just as the head of the Hyuga clan was about to give up and cancel their one chance at happiness, the door to the priest's home opened to admit two individuals. They were Aburame Shibi and Inuzuka Tsume, two fellow clan heads and individuals that Hiashi socialized with in frequent years. They said nothing as they took their seats on the priest's vacant couch, and to this very day five years after Hiashi and Kakiare's wedding Hiashi never figured out how the two clan heads had known of his activity but he never questioned it. In fact every moment, whether it be on the street, in a meeting, or during a dinner invitation, he saw them he sent them a subtle nod of gratitude.

Also, right after his wedding the Hokage had instigated an investigation into the internal workings of the Hyuga clan. The main branch members were interrogated on their treatment of the cadet branch and some were even imprisoned with their inhuman treatment of their fellow Hyuga's. Many of the main branch members tried to fight the Hokage, saying that the Hokage had no right to impose on their traditions or beliefs, but after their were 'reminded' by both the Hokage as well as Hiashi they were silenced. Hiashi himself was having some trouble in breaking out of his habits of treating Hinata. Sarutobi understood and had witnessed that Hiashi was trying to reshape himself when it came to his daughters so the elder Hokage helped the Hyuga Lord along. It was Sarutobi coupled with Kakiare that helped Hiashi being the mending process with his eldest daughter.

A sudden weight on the Hyuga Lord's lap knocked him from his reverie. Refocusing his eyes to the world and not his memories, Hiashi found his wife seated comfortably on his lap like a large purring cat. She wore a similar risqué garment as she had worn on their wedding day: a black laced teddy that accented her bust and her hips. She was a rough beauty, similar to Inuzuka Tsume, with wild, long, unmanageable hair, a devil may care smile, a robust figure with round hips, a plump rear, and a generous bust. Not only was her personality the polar opposite of her best friend Amaiki. Amaiki was a slender figure with her body favoring straightness and, in a sense, flatness; her hips were not overly wide, her was like a peach, and her bust did not stop men in their tracks. Pin straight black hair, a pair of angels lips, and a heart shaped face were what sold her as a picture perfect Lady of the Hyuga clan.

The Lord of the Hyuga clan ran his fingers through his wife's hair, causing her to purr in the process. Her pale purple eyes looked up at his and a smile that could only belong to her spilt her lips. It was a smile that hinted mischief and seduction; a normal occurrence for her. She was a wild cat, a renegade, one hell of a wild card. She was as black as a black sheep could get.

"What brings you here kaa-sama **(5)**?" Hiashi asked as he continued to stroke his wife's beautiful hair.

She only purred louder and smuggle into his arms. "The bed gets mighty cold when you're not in it…"

Kakiare was a chronic snuggler especially after one of their love making sessions. She just loved attaching herself to something when she slept, but it also did not help that she enjoyed wearing every little if nothing at all when she slept. Though Hiashi would never admit it he thoroughly enjoyed his wife's habits.

He didn't reply but held her closer and buried his nose in her unruly locks. Just as he had loved his first wife with all his heart he loved Kakiare with all his heart. She was fantastic, she was sensual yet she was tasteful for when she allowed her rambunctious nature to come to light. As he looked down into her eyes he saw the familiar glint that promised unspeakable hours of love making. It was a dangerous glint, one that only promised noise and soreness afterwards, on both fronts.

Just as Kakiare leaned forward to initiate a kiss to get the show started a rather loud and obnoxious knock rattled the couple. Hiashi sat forward in his chair so quickly that Kakiare fell to the floor in an erotic heap of lace and flesh. Sparing one long glance that memorized his wife's form to memory he shooed her into their bedroom to get presentable.

"Enter," he commanded once he saw that his scantily clad wife was out of sight.

Sparing the Lord and Lady of the family several more seconds to become presentable the front gate's guard, Shin, entered Hiashi's study with a red eyed Hinata in tow. Hiashi took instant notice to his daughter's saddened look and instantly he feared the worse. Hinata had become brittle under Hiashi's training, but hopefully in the coming years he would be to heal her and strength her with kindness.

"Ah, Hinata-chan," he tried his best to keep his voice upbeat and soothing, "It's good to see you home. Where have you been for so long?"

What Hiashi noticed before his daughter began her report was that Shin was still standing by the door. This could only mean that he had something to add to Hinata's report. He quietly filed that away as he focused on his daughter's tale.

Taking deep calming breaths Hinata prepared herself for her report. She had anticipated this as she and Shin had trekked up to Hiashi's office. While they walked she sorted through the days events and decided on what she should tell her father and what she strategically side step. With her mental preparations complete she eased herself into her report.

"Since today was my day off of my Shinobi duties, I decided to take some time and go purchase some cinnamon rolls from the baker. Once I had I was planning on heading back to the compound to enjoy my cinnamon rolls in the garden…when I bumped into Naruto-kun…"

"Naruto-kun? Uzumaki Naruto-kun?" asked Kakiare as she exited the bedroom and headed towards her husband, "Isn't that the boy that you like?"

Once Kakiare entered the room Hiashi noticed a physical change in his daughter. Her shoulders tightened, she stood up straight, and her eyes hardened just enough for Hiashi to notice. In the past years Hiashi had noticed her attitude towards Kakiare had become harsher and harsher. For the most part Hiashi could not find a reason for her hostility, but recently he had formed a hypothesis. Hiashi believed that Hinata was feeling both betrayed and intimidated by Kakiare. Hinata still had some memories of her biological mother, Amaiki, while Hanabi had none, and as such she must have felt that Kakiare was slowly whittling away the memory and person of Amaiki. He was sure that was the reason, and he understood her. He could see where she believed that, and in a sense she was right. Kakiare was replacing Amaiki but she _had_ to, Hanabi needed a mother, and even if Hinata would not admit it she needed one too. But Hinata was also wrong. So was too young to understand that no one person could ever eclipse another person, especially one that you loved.

"Who I like or don't like is not your concern _Kaa-sama_," Hinata hissed.

Yep, Hiashi was right. Kakiare pouted at her 'daughter's' tone but said nothing else. Neither did Hiashi, but he filed a talk with his daughter about her tone and treatment of her mother later away in the back of his mind. With a wave of his hand he signaled Hinata to continue.

"After I met up with Naruto-kun he invited me for lunch. During lunch I helped him with a library book. After that he invited me out for a walk and it was some time before we realized that I was late and as such he escorted me home."

Hiashi noticed that she had left quite a bit out of her report, but it show that he was different than before he allowed her to keep her secrets. Kakiare noticed it as well, and he quickly squeezed her hand that she had placed on his shoulder so that she did not unnerve Hinata any more. He acknowledged his daughter's report, but signaled her to stay. Once she reluctantly nodded Hiashi motioned for Shin to make his report. The older man sent Hinata an apologetic smile before stepping forward and being his report.

"I do not wish to harm Hinata-sama's sense of privacy but I believe there are some tings that should be known to both you, Lord and Lady." Once he said that Hinata looked as if she as about to jump out of her skin and throttle the man before her. Whatever was about to be said must be important if it was able to rise this kind of reaction out of Hinata. "I was at the front gate taking up my shift of guard duty when I heard a rather heated argument from the western wall. I went to investigate and I found Uzumaki-san and Hinata-sama having a disagreement. When I made myself known, Hinata-sama asked for a few more moments to their discussion but knowing that you wished to see your daughter as soon as possible so I had to deny her her next moments.

"Just as we were about to leave…" Shin paused, debating if he should divulge this piece of information. Hiashi would most likely wish to hear it, but Hinata most likely did not want it to be known. Well, Hiashi trumped Hinata, even if Shin felt bad about it. "Just as we were about to leave, Hinata-sama rushed back and…one unfortunate slip lead to an unplanned kiss." He could feel Hinata's eyes boring into the back of his skull.

"I quickly intervened and made the discovery that Uzumaki-san has the **Art of the Shadow Doppelganger** with his repertoire of techniques. Once I found this out I ushered Hinata-sama up here." The last bit of Shin's report was quick, clean, and precise.

Hinata was a wreck, and because of that Hiashi was intrigued. Now he wished to know what the 'discussion' was that Shin had hinted on. "Hmm…thank you, Shin-san. Now, Hinata-chan, would you be able so kind as to describe the 'discussion' you were having with Naruto-san's Doppelganger?"

Hinata's shoulders sagged, "D-d-dd-o I h-h-h-have to?"

"If you would."

With a heavy sigh Hinata twiddled her fingers furiously. "W-w-w-w-w-e w-w—ww—ww—were t-t-t—t-t-t-alking ab-b-b-bb-out m-m-m-m-m-mm-m-mm-m-y cr-cr-c-rc-rr-r-r-r-rush on N-n-n-nn-n-n-n-nn-n-n-n-n-aruto-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k—k-k-kun."

"So…you confessed to Naruto-kun?" Kakiare put bluntly.

Hinata's face lit up like a Christmas tree. Before anyone could stop her Hinata rushed out of her parents' room and down the hall towards her own room. Hiashi sent his wife a 'dirty' look but sighed nonetheless.

"I believe Hinata-sama feels embarrassed because she confessed to a Doppelganger that popped and thus Uzumaki-san will never know…" Shin's voice was quiet and filled with heartfelt concern.

Hiashi and Kakiare could only smile. "Shin-san, did you know that the **Shadow Doppelganger** is special not only for being solid. The **Art of the Shadow Doppelganger** also enables the castor to retrieve the knowledge of the Doppelganger. All knowledge."

Shin stood their blinking before a sly, friendly smile cross his lips. "Now that is…special."

XxXxX

Hiashi was indeed correct when he surmised that the **Art of the Shadow Doppelganger** transferred information to its castor. In fact, he was so accurate that Kokubogumo basked in the techniques after affect for a good five minutes. When Hinata had left Kokubogumo had continued her instruction about the contracts 'commanders'. Naruto listened adamantly, soaking up every bit of information like a sponge. She had explained some of the finer details around the 'commanders'; like how the crab spiders also were in charge of the bees and the ants of the realm, or how the tarantulas were actually a lot kinder and docile than depicted.

It was when she was half way through her explanation of the Jorou clan when Naruto suddenly went extremely silent, still, and blank. He soon passed out with a massive nosebleed and a silly smile on his face. It took several minutes for him to come to, and during that time Kokubogumo took out her knitting needles and began to knit a human sweater using her own silk as the thread. It was one her past times. Since the Jorou clan could become human there was always a need for human clothes.

She had just completely the sweater's left sleeve when Naruto suddenly bolted upright. What she had to deal with Naruto ranting about what had just happened. Apparently the young shy looking girl had not only confessed to like the boy but had also kissed him. It wasn't the information that entertained Kokubogumo, no she figured that the girl had a crush on the boy. What entertained her was the fact that Naruto had all but lost his head over the information. He ran about like a headless chicken, scream, sweating, and losing his mind all at the same time. It was quite the show.

As he continued to rant Kokubogumo glanced up at the setting sun. Judging by its position it was just about time. Before she had been summoned to the human realm Jorougumo had instructed Kokubogumo on a very special task. Smiling to herself she caught Naruto by using her silky threads to bind him so he would stop bashing his skull against the nearest tree.

"Now, now, there is no need for that," the elder wolf spider reasoned.

"Do you know what this _means_?" the boy countered, "Someone likes me, like _really _likes me. Me? The retard of the class, the stupidest person in the village, the pariah. This is bad. _Very, very _bad." Suddenly his mood shifted. "But this is good, someone likes me. Someone kind, caring, beautiful, and helpful likes me. She really likes me!"

As the blonde was talking, Kokubogumo reeled in her silk so that Naruto was close to her face rather than over thirty feet away inflicting self mutilation. To stop himself from switching between horribly terrified and honestly ecstatic she snapped him up and down like a lion tamers whip.

"Now Naruto, I need for you to calm down. It's not that bad." He was about to refute her claim her she placed on of her legs over his mouth to silence him. "Calm down and relax."

Taking some deep through his nose Naruto's nerves slowly began to chill. Several more breaths brought Naruto back to normal. Seeing that he no longer was about to cause physical harm to himself Kokubogumo skillfully removed his silk bindings.

"Ok, now that you're back to normal it is time for us to go."

"Us?" Naruto questions while taking off some stray threads of silk.

"Yes, us. The Queen gave me specific orders to bring you to meet her once I was summoned."

"Wait, but that would mean-"

"That would mean that I would have to bring you back with me to the summon's realm."

Naruto's eyes bugged out of his skull. He knew that the summon's realm was not like earth, or even in the same dimension, but to go there was no small feat. It would also mean that he would be in great danger. It wasn't that he feared the spiders and other arachnids, it was just that he was mindful that some may look at him as a small snack rather than a summoner.

"I don't think—"

"Your concern is noted," the wolf spider interjected, "Now back to the summons realm."

Without giving Naruto a second to defend himself or to conjure up an excuse Kokubogumo gripped Naruto around the waist with her two front legs. In an instance the two of them were gone in a plumb of smoke and a '_pop_'. What was left in the training field was nothing but disturbed leaves.

XxXxX

**(1)**: Think of the library like you would think of an inverse Impel Down from _One Piece_.

**(2)**: Some spider do in fact commune in a sole web. While this is rare it does happen.

**(3)**: You can see what some ones wardrobe is if you observe. I own a total of eight pairs of pants and a total of about ten shirts; over time the shirts will show up again and again so it would not be hard to spot repeats.

**(4)**: '-chan' is a common suffix for children to refer to one another. Naruto has a young mind (mentally), so it would not be far off to have him refer to Hinata as 'Hinata-chan' with no romantic intent. In this story I will try to use suffixes as they should be via my Japanese language books.

**(5)**: When a couple has children it is common for the parents to forgo their names and refer to each other as 'Mom' and 'Dad'.

AN: I have a habit of liking to do things in fanfics that have not been done (or at least to my knowledge) and one of those things was trying out the remarriage. It kinda speaks for itself but I feel really attached to it now that I think about it. I hope you feel the same

As you see I like to display Hinata in a strong light. This will be a recurring theme in most if not all of the stories I till post on this sight. I just feel that if push comes to shove and if it comes to her love being questioned she will step up and show everyone that she means business.

I know this chapter kinda felt like a filler, in a sense it was. It was meant to set up the stage for both Naruto's/Hinata's relationship as well as Naruto's understanding to what he has gotten himself into when it comes to this technique.

You might also that I prefer to use the English pronunciation to the Shinobi techniques. I have a reason for this. The reason is that is that if you spoke Japanese you would hear the meaning of the work the same as we who speak understand the meanings of the word. I guess what I am trying to say is that words are just the vessels that contain thought, and thus it does not matter if it is Japanese or English when it comes to technique names. Some people are rather adamant for the Japanese translations so this is why I put this here, to help you understand.

This is the end of my triad. Please disregard any errors that may be in this chapter. I had to self-edit it so there may be one to two things out of place.

Please review, but when you do be kind. 'Do unto others as you would have done unto you'. Review me as you would want others to review you.

TTFN

Evilsheeplordthatsaysmoo


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